


No Grey

by SailorBryant



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Absolutely ridiculous kingdom names, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Minecraft AU sorta, Prince!Gavin, Ryan teasing Gavin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-02-24 19:57:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 43,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2594507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorBryant/pseuds/SailorBryant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan is sent to capture the crowned prince of Achevia, and it's surprisingly easy.  The people are fools and their prince is an idiot.  The journey back may not be as easy as the capture, but he has to make it back and claim his reward. No matter how attached to the idiot he may become.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fancy Meeting You Here

**Author's Note:**

> First Freewood fic, so be kind! Any errors you find let me know. I've already got the second chapter written and working on the third so this should be updated weekly. I'll let you know if that changes!
> 
> Title is based off the song No Grey by The Neighborhood, which I snagged from this wonderful Mad!Ryan playlist by yourtwodads: http://8tracks.com/yourtwodads/3833085

“Hi,” Gavin said meekly, smiling nervously down at the other man from his perch in the tree.  
   
“Hello,” Ryan responded, a wild grin creeping across his face.  He pulled his bow from his back, cocking the arrow into place and aiming it at Gavin, whose eye’s had been darting around looking for a quick escape route. He stopped immediately when he noticed the arrow aimed at him.    
   
“Why don’t you go ahead and climb down, your highness.”  
   
“No, thanks,” Gavin squeaked.  
   
“But I insist.”  Ryan loosed an arrow into the tree beside Gavin’s head.  The prince screamed and flailed his arms, nearly falling from the tree before wrapping his arms around a branch to steady himself. “It’s much safer down here, don’t you think?”  
   
Gavin whimpered.  “No really, I’m quite comfortable in trees.  Been climbing in them all my-.”  Gavin stopped when he saw Ryan stringing up another arrow. “I thought you said you weren’t going to kill me?”  
   
“Oh, I won’t.  I didn’t say I wouldn’t knock you out of that tree, break both your legs and just drag you along.”    
   
“Okay! Okay! I’m getting down!” Gavin screamed. “Don’t shoot.”  
   
This kidnapping was going much better than Ryan could have ever hoped for.  When King Burnie had first propositioned him to capture Prince Gavin of Achieva, Ryan had had to stop himself from laughing in the man’s face.  Ryan was good, no doubt.  He'd been snatching debtors, wanted men, and even once the head of a clan, from their beds for years and dragging them kicking and screaming to meet their justice for years. But snatching the crowned prince out from underneath the overprotective clutches of the King and Queen sounded insane.  Still, Burnie had offered an equally insane reward. It went against his better judgment, the only thing that had kept him from the wrong end of a jail cell, but he had accepted.    
   
He, and a small mousy boy named Caleb that Burnie had fostered on him (doubtless to keep an eye on him), quickly made their way to the Achievia City. At first, it seemed like everything they had heard about the overprotectiveness of the King and Queen and their adopted heir was true.  The prince rarely left the castle, and when he did it was only for the weekly royal procession through the village.    
  
After weeks of hiding out in the capital, spending King Burnie's silver on food and lodgings, they eventually struck gold when Caleb was lucky enough to become friendly with a palace maid who simply adored his ‘gorgeous’ blue eyes.  It was a poorly kept secret, apparently, that the prince had a curious habit of dressing up and sneaking away to the village for a day.

The first time it had happened, there had apparently been such an uproar of a proportion that Ryan could only imagine.  Achieva's royal couple was known for the tight leash they kept the prince on, and to have him vanish for an entire day, only to stroll in around supper as if nothing was wrong, had probably been a sight to see. Now, according to the maid, it was commonplace. Occasionally, he was even accompanied by his personal guard, a younger man with bright, red curls, in plain clothes, though they were both equally conspicuous.    
   
It seemed he was no more excited about being kept as a caged bird than Ryan would have been, and he had to admire that.  He also had to admire how easy it had made it to capture the man.  
   
They only had to wait a few more days, before one morning they spotted a plainly dressed man scaling the palace wall and sprinting down the hill towards the village.  He followed him for a while, blending into the crowds with an ease that had taken years to hone.  It gave him time to watch the blonde man, who was everything he had expected to find. His clothes were plain, but still of the highest quality.  Obviously cared for by maids, and kept in a fine wooden chest until the prince's flight instincts took over once more. He was shorter than Ryan, and his limbs were wild and gangly, much more suited for a teenage boy than the twenty-two-year-old he knew he was stalking. He had fine features, Ryan begrudgingly noticed. Bright eyes, a slim build in spite of his awkward limbs, soft, sun-bleached hair. In another world, Ryan would have been admiring the boy for reasons other than professionally, but that was another world. 

He waited just a bit longer, confirming that the prince wasn't going to be met by his guard, before Ryan had simply walked right up behind him, while the prince was bent over examining a large cache of vegetables in a merchant’s stall, and carefully placed a dagger against his back.  
   
“Hello,” he whispered in his ear, “your highness.”  
   
Gavin froze in place, still bent over the display. “Bugger.”  
   
“No thanks, I’ve got more important plans.  Now, why don’t we take a little stroll.” Ryan punctuated his sentence by adding more pressure to the dagger. Gavin let out a small whimper and started walking.  “Good boy.  Now just keep walking towards the smith’s, we’re just going to sneak out the back way without those pesky little guards seeing us.”  
   
“You’ve got some nerve for an assassin," the prince hissed, his false bravado betrayed by the whine in his voice.  "Trying it in broad daylight and all.”   
   
“Thanks, but I’m not an assassin.”  
   
“Then what do you want with me?” Gavin whispered, his voice pitching up an octave, trying to walk as slowly as possible.    
   
“You and I are just going to take a little trip, no big deal.”  
   
They’d made it out of the village and just to the line of trees that bordered the forest, before a man on horseback appeared from behind a thick patch of forest, startling them both.  
   
“Dammit, Caleb!” Ryan growled when Gavin used the distraction to sprint off into the dense tree line.

"Sorry!" Caleb yelled, trying to calm his startled horse.   
  
“Don’t worry, I’ve got him,” Ryan hollered back at him as he took after the prince. “Stick to the plan!”  
  
He disappeared into the forest, to the sounds of Caleb’s horse galloping off in the opposite direction.  
  
What an idiot, Ryan couldn’t help but think, not knowing if he was thinking of Caleb or the prince. Why would he run deeper into the forest instead of towards help?   
   
His diagnosis of the prince's intelligence was reconfirmed quickly when he found him almost instantaneously halfway up a relatively sparse tree and clearly in view. It had only taken one close arrow and the prince was quickly giving himself up.  
   
Ryan waited until Gavin was slowly climbing down the tree, before throwing his bow on his back and pulling out his sword.  When Gavin reached the ground, he found it pressed to his throat.  
   
“No sudden movements, or we’ll end up right here again, okay?”  
   
Gavin nodded slowly, and Ryan sheathed his sword. He pulled a rope from his pocket and tied a complicated knot around Gavin’s wrists, leaving himself a line to pull the prince behind him, and began the trek to Roosteria.    
   
For Ryan, this was usually his least favorite part of the job.  The initial capture was fun, and he more than enjoyed the impromptu chase through the forest, but the rest was usually silent marches with captives either weeping, silent as the grave, or unconscious.  Surprisingly, Gavin was none of those things.  
   
“I can’t believe you were fast enough to catch me! I’ve been outrunning guards since I was a lad.”  
   
“Must be some slow guards,” Ryan replied conversationally.  
   
“No, no, they were fast as lightning.  You’re just unnaturally fast, that’s all.”  
   
“Well, there was that swiftness potion I had earlier,” Ryan drawled. The slack in the rope suddenly drew taught.  Ryan spun to see Gavin staring at him, pure wide wonder in his eyes.  
   
“Really?”  
   
Before he could stop it, Ryan laughed. “Of course not, you idiot.”  
   
If the look Gavin had had before was pure wonder, this was pure disappointment. His eyes dropped to the ground, bottom lip out. “Aw. That would’ve been top.”  
   
“Surely you don’t still believe in potions? You’re a grown man,” Ryan said, his words still tinged with laughter.  
   
“No,” Gavin replied, as a faint red tinge spread across his cheeks.  
   
“Do you keep a cat next to your bed to scare away creepers as well? Stood in an Obsidian gateway and tried to go the Nether?”    
   
“No!” Gavin pouted. “I just think it would be cool if all that stuff was real.  S’not weird.”  
   
“It’s pretty damn weird.” Ryan tugged on the rope, jostling Gavin into movement as they continued marching on.  “I think you’re supposed to stop believing in fairy tales around the time you’re old enough to stop eating dirt.”  Gavin grumbled to himself, but otherwise stayed silent.  Their land was full of fantastical tales that Ryan had heard all his life. From the terrifying creepers that roamed the forests, to the stories of skeletons that rode atop spiders, found in the deepest dark caves.  However, most stopped believing such stories when they old enough to know better.  
   
The prince must have been as sheltered as Ryan had always heard.  
   
He grinned, as he could practically feel the prince fuming behind him. “You don’t still eat dirt, do you?”  
   
“Gwah! You’re such a dick!”  Ryan laughed loudly this time, fully enjoying the other man’s frustration.

Ryan laughed loudly this time, fully enjoying the other man’s frustration.  
   
“You know the guards are going to catch up to us pretty quick, right? We’re not even on horses,” Gavin replied snottily.  
  
“I wouldn’t be too hopeful about that if I were you. We’ve been watching you for a while.  I know that your excursions off the grounds are a pretty common occurrence, and I know that the guards probably won’t start looking for you until tonight when you don’t show up for dinner.” Gavin sputtered, so surprised he seemed to be choking on his own words. "Plus, I sent my partner off on your horse to a nearby village in the opposite direction.  Once the sightings start pouring in that should give us a nice little head start, don’t you think?”  
   
Gavin was silent at that.  
   
It didn’t last long.  
   
“So why does King Burnie want to kidnap me so bad?”  
   
Ryan stopped and spun around to face the man. “How did you-”  
   
“The sigil!” Gavin nearly squealed. “On your sword. It’s the royal house of Roosteria, right?”    
   
That was...surprisingly observant of the prince.  Especially considering the only time he’d seen Ryan’s sword was when it was against his throat.  Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as he seemed to be?  
   
“I’m right aren’t I?”  He took Ryan’s silent glare as confirmation. “Ha. Awesome.” Ryan rolled his eyes and began walking again, tugging roughly on the rope.  Truly, it didn’t matter if the prince knew where they were going or not, he was not escaping any time soon. Even if Ryan had to knock him out and throw him over his shoulder.  
   
“But seriously, why does he want to kidnap me?”    
  
He glanced back to give him a _look._ “Because you’re the heir of a rival kingdom?”  
   
“So?” Gavin asked earnestly. Or maybe he was just so stupid that even with a sword to his throat, instead of pissing his pants, he decided to admire the craftwork. That had to be it, Ryan finally decided, because this guy was an idiot.

Or maybe he was just so stupid that even with a sword to his throat, instead of pissing his pants, he decided to admire the craftwork. That had to be it, Ryan finally decided, because this guy was an idiot.  
   
“What do you mean, so?  You’re leverage idiot.  He can get whatever he wants from Geoffery now that he has his little brother in custody.  Land rights, materials, and whatever else he can dream up.”  
   
“What?” Gavin screeched. “But that’s so rude!”  
   
Ryan let out another burst of laughter. He couldn’t even begin to believe the pure ignorance the other man could display. It was no wonder the King and Queen rarely let him leave the castle.  
   
“Are you an idiot?” he asked, unable to help adding a sliver of genuine curiosity to his voice.  
   
“No! I do great in all my classes. Top marks.”  
   
“So, that’s the life of a prince in Achieva.  Slow guards and easy classes so the idiot prince can feel good about himself.  What a life,” Ryan says wistfully.  He didn’t have to turn around to know the look of hatred being sent his way.  The silence stretched between them again, but as last time it didn’t last for long.  He nearly jumped when he realized Gavin had jogged up to walk beside him.  
   
“Is everyone in Roosteria as rude as you, or are you just special?” Ryan’s hand slid from the hilt of his sword, where it had automatically jumped.    
   
“Do you ever shut up?”    
   
Gavin grinned, and the force of it took Ryan by surprise. It spread from one side of his cheek to the other and lit his eyes up like the flame of a torch in the pitch black of a cave. “Nope,” he replied, simply.  
   
Ryan nearly tripped over his own feet, caught up in staring at the simple playfulness in his captive’s face.  
   
“I don’t know,” he began slowly, still mulling over Gavin’s smile. “I’m not from Roosteria, so I can’t speak for that.”  Gavin’s brow turned down in thought, and Ryan was able to turn his attention back to his path.

Gavin’s brow turned down in thought, and Ryan was able to turn his attention back to his path.  
   
“Where are you from?”  
   
“Somewhere else,” he answered smugly, taking great pleasure in the prince’s annoyed snort.    
   
Ryan deftly stepped over an upturned branch and was rewarded with hearing Gavin scream and curse as he tripped.  
   
“Oi!” Gavin shouted once he was back on his feet. “Why didn’t you warn me about that branch?”  
   
Ryan pushed down his amusement to give him an unamused glare. “I’m your captor, not your guard.  If you’re incapable of walking on your own it’s none of my business.”  
   
“Hey don’t be a dick-”  
   
“Now if you don’t mind,” Ryan interrupted, the earlier playfulness completely gone from his voice, “could you try shutting up for a bit. You’re starting to give me a headache.” Truthfully, the conversation wasn’t all that bad, but Ryan was afraid he was starting to enjoy it a little too much.  It didn’t help that he could still see the image of that playful grin in his mind.  
   
“Why don’t you make me?” Gavin said, grumpily.  
   
Ryan gripped the hilt of his sword, pulling on it, the metal whining as it slid half way out of the sheath.  “Only too gladly, your highness.”  
   
Gavin let out a loud gulp, slowing to follow silently behind his captor.  Ryan slid his sword back in.  
   
“Good boy,” Ryan said after a few beats of silence. Gavin’s annoyed shriek kept Ryan amused long after the sound had faded.  
   



	2. Would You Rather?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dumb jokes. Stupid feels. Banter. Oh, the banter.

Hours passed before Gavin finally spoke again.

“Hey don’t stab me or anything, Mr. Crazy Guy, but I’ve really got to wee.”

“You’ve got to what?” Ryan asked. 

“You know," Gavin huffed.  "I gotta pee.”

“You gotta use big boy words, your highness,” Ryan snickered, but he did stop, turning towards Gavin.

“Oh shut it!” Gavin placed his bound hands into Ryan’s face and held them there.

Ryan looked down at him, contemptuously raising an eyebrow. “Um, I know you’re spoiled, but surely you can piss on your own.”

Gavin’s face turned blood red. “You have to untie my hands, you asshole!”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? I’m not untying you.”

“But-” Gavin sputtered. “But how am I-”

“Figure it out.” Ryan looked up at the sun, judging how close they were to midday. “And make it quick.”

Gavin groaned and started to shuffle, kicking his feet like a kid, towards a nearby tree.

“Whoa, where are you going?” Gavin gave him a look of genuine confusion.

Gavin gave him a look of genuine confusion. “Behind the tree?”

Ryan laughed. “Oh, I don’t think so. Stay right here where I can see you.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I think you’ll find that I am.”

“I can’t just do that right in front of you!”

“You can if you want to piss.”

Gavin groaned and turned around, facing away from the other man, grumbling to himself about ‘mad assholes.’

Ryan waited patiently for a minute as Gavin stood there silently. Then another minute.

“Well?” he finally said.

“I told you, I can’t do it knowing you’re watching me!”

Ryan let out a long groan. “Fine! Go, you big baby! I don’t want to be here all day.”

Gavin squealed and ran behind a broad oak. Ryan endured another minute of silence, before he quietly snuck around the other side of the tree, coming up behind the prince who was furiously trying to loosen the rope around his wrists. He was amused to note that he was failing miserably.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Gavin screamed, curling in on himself like he’d been hit. “You scared me!”

“I noticed. Now if you’re done trying to escape could we be on our way? I’d like to make some distance before it gets dark.”

Gavin looked up at him, still crouched in fear. “Are-are you not mad?”

“Oh, I’m furious,” he said, his cold blue eyes staring straight into Gavin’s. “But, I would have to be about as dumb as you to have not expected it.”

“Oi! Rude!” Ryan smirked and motioned with his hands for him to hurry up. “Fine,” Gavin mumbled, shooting his captor a sharp look that Ryan couldn’t quite decipher, and quickly did his business.

Ryan smirked and motioned with his hands for him to hurry up. “Fine,” Gavin mumbled, shooting his captor a sharp look that Ryan couldn’t quite decipher, and quickly did his business.

“Fine,” Gavin mumbled, shooting his captor a sharp look that Ryan couldn’t quite decipher, and quickly did his business.

Unsurprisingly, the prince was silent for a bit after that. Obviously fuming about his pitiful aborted escape attempt and Ryan enjoyed it immensely. In fact, it was almost worrisome how much delight he took in soaking in the spoiled prince's pouting, but he quickly wrote it off.  No one said he couldn't enjoy his job.  

“Would you rather,” Gavin finally said, once again right beside Ryan, “fight five cow-sized Ender Dragon’s, or one Ender Dragon-sized cow?”

“What?” Ryan asked, his steps stuttering slightly as he was startled out his own musings by the ridiculous question.

“What?” Gavin asked, sincerely confused by Ryan’s outburst. “It’s just a question.”

Ryan was silent.

“Oh, come on. Answer it! It’ll be fun!” He wanted to ignore him, he did, but he made the mistake of turning to catch his eye. The prince was looking at him with such _excitement_ that it caught Ryan off guard.

Well, it couldn’t hurt to indulge him on this, and it’s not like he had anything to keep his attention in the middle of nowhere.

Ryan sighed. “Fine." He ignored Gavin's squeal. "Leaving out the fact that Ender Dragons don’t exist.” Gavin shrugged, his eyes still filled with anticipation. Ryan tumbled the question around his head, giving it serious consideration. “Is it just a normal cow? Can’t breathe fire or fly?”

“No, it’s a normal cow.”

“Then I’d obviously pick the big cow. A cow is a cow, no matter how big it is. What’s it even going to do to me?”

Gavin gave him a wicked smile. “It could stomp you!”

“I’d just have to avoid its legs. Even then, it would still be a lot easier than a bunch of dragons as big as a cow. It’s not like cows are tiny. I would do about as well against a cow sized Ender Dragon as a regular sized Ender Dragon.

“Ohh! You’re right! How about something smaller, like a wolf?”

“Now that’s an actual conundrum,” Ryan plowed on, genuinely giving the question serious thought, and trying to ignore that this had to be the dumbest conversation he’d ever been apart of. “Five wolf-sized Ender Dragons would be manageable, but you could get overwhelmed quickly. But, a giant wolf could rip you to shreds pretty easily."

“I’d take the tiny Ender Dragons,” Gavin told him cheerfully. “I’d just wait up in a tree and shoot them one by one.”

Ryan snorted. “Your almost certainly abysmal archery skills' aside-,”

“Oi! I’m great with a bow! The master’s at the castle call me Mark Nutt!” Gavin beamed.

“Who?”

Gavin’s grin faltered. “Mark Nutt? The greatest archer ever? Famous across all the nine kingdoms?”

“That is not a real person," Ryan snorted.

“What? Of course, he is!”

“Believe me, I would remember a name like Mark Nutt.”

“But-But, why else would they give me the name?”

“They were probably just fucking with you.” Ryan couldn’t help himself. He took one look at the look of utter betrayal on Gavin’s face, and he burst into laughter. Betrayal turned to indigence, and that only made him laugh even harder.

“Oh god, I can just see it. You’ve been running around all these years thinking you’re the King of the Bow, and they’ve been laughing their asses off at you.”

“What!? I-no! You-”

“Anyways,” Ryan spoke over Gavin’s outraged stuttering, "as I said. Your shitty shooting aside, you forgot one thing. The dragons can still fly. And breath fire. You would be fucked sitting up in a tree.”

Gavin’s anger turned to contemplation, then to defeat. “Damn." He nibbled on his lip, obviously thinking.

The prince displayed his emotions so plainly that it couldn’t help but unnerve Ryan a tiny bit. He didn’t normally keep company around such open people, and he might have even doubted their existence were it not for the proof in front of him. It reminded him of watching a play. The actors on stage over exaggerating their faces to match the words and the feelings they were supposed to be capturing. But with Gavin, it wasn’t acting.

He had the sudden realization that he would have to be careful not to let himself become too used to it. It would be easy, after spending most of his life around people who wore masks like breathing to enjoy the presence of someone so open. But, as he had learned from early on, people that open were weak. 

Gavin opened his mouth to speak, and Ryan prepared himself for another insane question.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

Ryan nearly tripped over own his own feet. It was a rare display of clumsiness that he hoped the prince didn’t see.

“Did you hear me?” Gavin asked when Ryan didn't answer him.

“Of course, I heard you,” Ryan said, gruffly. What the hell was wrong with this guy?

“Well?”

“It’s none of your damn business,” he replied, and Gavin whined. “Why the hell would you want to know my name?”

“You know mine, and it looks like we’re going to spending some time together. I at least wanna know your name!”

“It’s ‘not a chance in hell,’ now shut you're giving me a head up.”

Gavin whined but didn’t ask again. In fact, to Ryan’s surprise, he stayed silent the rest of the day. Eventually, the sun began to set, and when they stumbled into a nice cluster of thick trees Ryan decided to call it a night. His feet were killing him, and Gavin was beginning to breathe heavily. He was stumbling and tripping even more than usual. It wouldn’t do him any good if his captive took a tumble and busted his head wide open.

Ryan motioned for Gavin to sit against a tree before looping the rope around it, and his captive, while ignoring the prince’s whining.

“Aww, come on! How am I supposed to sleep like this?”

“You’ll find a way I’m sure,” he replied simply, tying it off in a particularly tight knot. Ryan unhooked his belt, and sat down a few feet from Gavin, leaning against the tree as well. He laid his sword down beside him, stretching out his legs.

“Aren’t you going to build a fire?”

“So everyone and their mother can find us? I think not.”

There were a few minutes of tense silence as Gavin fidgeted around trying to find a comfortable spot, and Ryan tried not to snap at him to stop.

“So, if you’re not from Roosteria why are you doing Burnie’s bidding?” Gavin asked, after finally giving up on any comfort.

This guy had to be kidding, Ryan thought. Who wants to converse with their kidnapper? “Money,” he answered simply, hoping it would shut him up.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it?” Ryan repeated, mocking Gavin’s accent. “Says the crowned prince who's never wanted for anything in his life. Money may not mean a lot to you, your highness, but it’s everything to those who don’t have it.”

A long time passed before Gavin finally spoke again.

“That’s not true.”

Ryan jerked slightly, startled. He had almost fallen asleep, thinking their conversation was done. “Huh?”

“It’s not true. About me not wanting for anything.” The playfulness was gone from Gavin’s voice. It was more quiet than usual, laced with a seriousness Ryan had not heard before.

“Oh?” Ryan asked, amused.

“I wasn’t raised in the castle with Geoff. I was a bastard. Mom an-We lived on our own.”

Like everyone else on the continent, Ryan knew the story. Gavin was the bastard of the former King and one of the Queen’s own maids. It had been quite the scandal at the time and became even bigger when he allowed her and the boy to stay at the castle, despite the protests of the Queen. While devoid of any official titles, they both still lived in splendor in their own little section of the castle.

Things quieted down while the infant grew into a young boy, with only the King and their own personal servants visiting them on occasion. However, things took a turn when Gavin’s older brother, and the then crowned prince, Geoffrey, began to take an interest in his little brother. They became very close, spending most of their time together.

This was apparently too much for the Queen. The stories say that she demanded, and screamed, and finally begged, before locking herself in solitude - refusing food or drink - until Gavin and his mother were sent away.

When his father died, one of the first things the new King did was track down his missing younger brother. Geoffrey showed up soon after with a thirteen old boy in tow and took him in as his own. It was only a few months after the King’s passing that Geoffrey and his wife, Griffon, officially adopted Gavin, giving him the Ramsey name, and making him the rightful heir to the kingdom.

Most speculated that he was simply a placeholder until the King and Queen produced an heir, but nearly a decade had passed and they had yet to bare children of their own.

“Oh, I’m sure the King’s villa in Violl's Garden was nowhere near the luxury of the Palace. Only a handful of servants on hand, I bet. Maybe the fifth best cook in the land instead of the best. How did you survive?” Ryan drawled.

“We didn’t live at the Villa!” Gavin screamed.

Ryan jumped at the intensity of the man’s denial. Gavin’s face turned distraught as if confused at his own anger, and looked away ashamed. “I mean,” he said quickly, “we went there first. It was really nice. Everyone there was kind, and there were tons of kids to play with. The King even visited a few times, which made mom really happy, but I didn’t really know him that well. I missed Geoff and everybody at the palace, but it was nice.”

He lifted his legs up to his chest but remembered his arms were tied down, and slowly lowered them back to the ground.

“But then one day the Queen shows up out of the blue with a gallon of guards and tells us we have to go. She said the King was done with us, and he had sent her to get rid of us. We only had enough time to throw some clothes in a bag, before the guards escorted us into the village.”

Gavin paused, seeming to gather himself, before beginning again.

“Some of the people at the villa snuck and gave us some money, so we could take a ship to Thame, to stay with my aunt. But she had so many kids, and couldn’t help us too much. She got mom a job at a tavern, and we stayed in one of the rooms. It was small, but mom made the best of it.” There was very little light coming off of the waxing moon, and an even smaller amount could make it through the densely packed forest top, but he could just barely see the small, sad smile that titled the prince's lips.

Ryan was entranced by it.

“I was miserable at first," he continued, "but mom didn’t know how to be sad. She talked about all the interesting people we were going to meet, living at a tavern. The way she went on, telling me about the people that wandered in every day, it was like she planned on us being there from the start. Like everything before had been an inconvenience, and now we were on an adventure.”

The smile slid away and left a gutted look in its place.

“But then she got sick,” Gavin mumbled.

Ryan stared at the prince, silent and far more awake than he had been when the story started. He had known none of this. He would bet - outside of the royal family - no one did.

“Did she,” he started, before letting the question hang in the air. 

Gavin nodded.

“What did you do?” he asked, slowly, intrigued beyond his own comprehension. He didn't know if it was being privy to the private background of a story that most of the continent thought they knew but truly didn't, or just the sight of seeing the spoiled little prince act so out of the character he had shown up until that moment.

“Stayed with my aunt and uncle for a bit, but it was hard on her having another mouth to feed. I tried to help out where I could, but I was so young and I’m not really good at anything. She tried, but her husband couldn’t stand me and my cousins weren’t big on me being there either. One night I’d finally had enough, so I took some bread and left while they were all asleep. I wish I’d said goodbye to her, she really did try, but I thought it might be easier for her that way. Eventually, I found some boys like me, and we-” Gavin paused, shuffling around a bit, “we got by.”

Ryan knew exactly what a group of orphaned boys did to get by. He’d felt their hands snatching at his purse while walking through the marketplace enough to know.

"Geoff told me later that he and the King had no idea. He’s so sure that the King believed we were safe at the villa until the day he died, but-" Gavin trailed off again, squinting his eyes in thought.

"But you don't know how that's possible." Ryan finished for him.

Gavin looked surprised at the interruption but gave him a weak smile. "Yeah,” he agreed softly, before looking back at the ground.

Ryan wasn't a naturally comforting person. He wasn’t close to enough people to have ever had it asked of him, and he had never felt the need to offer it unwarranted. Yet, he found himself oddly wishing he could say something even remotely comforting to the young man, before immediately berating himself for the thought.

_He’s your prisoner, you idiot._

Gavin suddenly snapped his head up to face Ryan, the fierceness of his eyes pulling Ryan out of his inner struggle and back to reality. “The point is you shouldn’t just assume you know everything about a person.” When Ryan didn’t respond, Gavin turned away, nodding his head like he was confirming something to himself.

Ryan was quiet for a long time. Gavin's head was tipped to the side and his eyes closed, when he finally spoke again.

"Ryan."

Gavin jerked up, collapsing back as he hit against the nonexistent slack of the rope. "What?" he mumbled.

"My name. It's Ryan."

That woke him up. Gavin’s eyes widened, lighting up in a way that left him momentarily breathless. When that same smile that had memorized Ryan earlier started to appear, he looked away before he could see it to completion.

"Ryan," Gavin whispered. The childlike wonder in his voice left Ryan feeling _restless_. His hands clenched and unclenched as he suddenly felt the need to do something with them. He pulled a leg up to his chest, gripping his trousers tight until the feeling passed.

"Thanks, Ryan," Gavin said quietly. Ryan didn't respond, and it wasn’t long before he heard the soft snores of his companion. He laid awake for a long time after, trying to desperately rationalize why he'd felt the need to tell the other man his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Ender Dragon part took me longer to write than the rest of the chapter combined. I just wanted someone to know that. 
> 
> I hope you guys liked it! Once again, if you find any glaring errors let me know I'll fix it right away. Next chapter's gonna be fun!! :D


	3. The Moonlight Really Brings Out The Blood On Your Face

Ryan sat up immediately, gripping his sword in his hand before he was even fully awake. The forest was silent around him; no light except for a sliver of the waxing moon. Still, something had woken him. He waited, hearing nothing except for the deep breathing of his captive.    
   
Then he heard it.  A laugh.  It wasn’t close yet, but Ryan had purposefully chosen a path through the deepest part of the woods so they could avoid other travelers.  The only other people traveling this way would be looking for Gavin, or up to no good.  And soldiers wouldn’t have made a sound before they were on them.  He quickly began untying the prince.  
   
He heard more voices this time, not loud enough to make out their words, but it meant they were getting closer. He placed a hand over Gavin’s mouth.  
   
“Your highness,” he whispered, and Gavin’s eyes sluggishly blinked open.    
   
He mumbled into Ryan’s hand, before realizing something was blocking his words.  His eyes shot open, fear radiating off him.  
   
“Bandits,” Ryan whispered as quietly as possible. “Follow me, and stay quiet.”    
   
Gavin nodded, and he removed his hand.  They stood up, the prince shooting him a sharp look when he realized that his hands had been untied, but Ryan ignored him. It would be much easier to escape silently if Gavin had full control of his body, was all. From what Ryan had seen it was not like the man had much control in the first place.  Still, even if the prince tried to run, it’s not like he would make it far in the near pitch blackness of the forest.  
   
He grasped the arm of Gavin’s tunic tightly, dragging him away from the voices.  They silently crept forward, dodging and weaving in between trees in the pitch black. Using his hand to feel ahead, Ryan was able to guide them along parallel to the voices. They seemed to be getting further and further away and Gavin began to relax a little when they stumbled upon a clearing.  And it wasn’t empty.  
   
One of the bandits was standing in the middle, facing them, getting ready to piss.  
   
There was an awkward, almost comical silence as they all tried to process what had happened. It was violently shattered when the man began screaming.  
   
“Boys! Boys! We got some live ones over here!”  
   
Ryan immediately pulled Gavin behind him, shielding him with his body, while pulling his sword out in a large flourish. He heard the prince whimper into the back of his neck as the silence around them exploded in yells and footsteps all running in their direction.  
   
"What do we have here?" One of the men asked smugly as they all spread into the clearing.  Ryan counted five of them, plus the man they'd originally ran into, who was currently doing up his trousers.  
   
"Nothing that concerns you.  We'll just be on our way and no one has to get hurt."  
   
They all laughed. One of the men pointed towards Ryan. "Look at that sword, boys.  That's not a cheap stick."  
   
"Too right.  We'd eat like kings for a month on what that could fetch us."  
   
"Yeah, let's gut 'em.  This one looks like a little trouble, but the little one'll probably die of fright."  Gavin whimpered. “Besides, looks like you’re a little-outnumbered mate.”  
   
Ryan grinned.  It wasn't like Gavin's smile, full of warmth and light, but a cold smile that seemed to suck the warmth right out from under you.  
   
"Remember gentlemen, I did warn you." He pushed Gavin back, letting the prince fall on his ass, but out of the fray.    
   
The men were still drawing their weapons when Ryan struck.  
   
Gavin watched it all, horror rising up through his stomach and clenching in his throat. His captor slit the first man open, slicing through his rough leather vest like a hand through water. He had moved on and sliced another man across the throat before the first one had fallen. He dodged a knife aimed for his back and spun, sweeping the man's legs out from beneath him, before sinking his sword into his gut with a sickening sound.  
   
One of the bandits leaped at Ryan, brandishing his own sword, but Ryan lazily met him blow for blow.  The bandit struggled to match him, while Ryan’s arms seemed to surge with strength with each clash before the sword finally flew from his hands. He tried to run, but Ryan's sword sliding across his back sent him to the ground.  
   
The two remaining men stared at their companions corpses at the ground, and their blood soaked killer and took off into the night.  Ryan was hot on their heels.  
  
He was still grinning.  
   
Gavin didn't see their deaths, but he heard their screams. He didn't think he'd ever stop hearing them.  Or the sound of metal slicing through skin. By the time Ryan returned, the mad grin was gone, and Gavin was throwing up into the grass.  
   
Ryan ignored him and quickly picked over the bodies for anything of value. After pocketing a few coins, and a decently made dagger, he turned to Gavin. The prince was still bent over facing the ground, looking like he was trying to not be sick again. Ryan grabbed his arm and tried to stand him up, but Gavin struggled against him.    
   
“Come on idiot, we’ve got to go.”  
   
Gavin turned to look at him, his face burnt red from throwing up.  His eyes were blown out, staring up at Ryan in pure fear. It wasn’t anything Ryan hadn’t seen many times before, and he immediately crushed down any feelings of regret that tried to form.  
   
“H-how can you-“  
   
“Did you want me to let them kill us?” Ryan asked, coldly.  
   
“N-no, but-“  
   
“Exactly.  Now get up.” 

Gavin wanted to argue. Ryan could see it in the eyes that met his dead on, but something in him stilled and he looked away.  He could only imagine the sight the young man was seeing now. Ryan, towering over him, with only the tiniest light from the moon to show him bathed in six men’s blood.  
  
Gavin climbed to his feet on shaky legs, refusing to look at his captor.  Ryan grasped Gavin’s shirt in his hand and they continued on through the forest.  
  
“We need to get away just in case they’ve got some more friends.”

Gavin came along without complaint.  
  
If the prince was now terrified of him that could only be a good thing Ryan reasoned to himself. It should’ve been that way in the first place if the prince wasn’t so odd.  They still had a few days until they reached Roosteria and if he was too scared to run away or too frightened to chatter on and on to distract Ryan, all the better.    
  
They reached a river just as the sun was starting to rise.  He led them to the bank, releasing Gavin as they both sank to their knees and started drinking.  He refilled his pouch while the prince eagerly washed his face.    
  
Ryan stood up, quickly assessing their location. Their blind trek through the woods had not led them as off trail as it could’ve.  They were currently at the wider part of the river, closer to a nearby trading village than he would have liked, but it wasn’t close enough to cause concern.  They’d only lost a few hours at the most, and they should still arrive at Roosteria on time.  
  
He held out his hand for Gavin to grab and pull himself up by, but when the prince’s eyes traveled up his offered arm and met his eyes, the man flinched.    
  
“D-don’t you think you should wash your face?”  
  
Oh. Yeah. He was still caked in blood.  He started to tell the prince to shove it when the vision of Gavin’s wild grin seemed to flicker against the backdrop of the man’s current sad grimace.    
  
Well, it was possible they could run into some benign travelers who weren’t trying to kill them, and maybe it would best for him to not look like a mad man.  They didn’t want to draw too much attention. Next thing Ryan knew he had dropped to his knees and had begun scrubbing the dried blood off. He whipped his tunic off, and his cloak, running them one at a time through the water and scrubbing at the blood.  It didn’t pull all of it off, but they were both a good deal cleaner than before.  His pants were dark enough that it was hard to see the blood, and he didn’t particularly feel like walking around in wet breeches no matter how warm it was outside.  
  
Ryan turned to Gavin, but the prince was staring wide-eyed at him.  Or more specifically, at his chest.    
  
“Hey.” Gavin blinked, but his eyes trailed slowly up Ryan’s chest until they met his face.  “Am I good?”  
  
A blush spread out across Gavin’s face until it was fully blanketed in a dark red burn.  
  
“Yup!” he said, his voice a pitch higher than Ryan had ever heard it before.  “Yup, you’re good. Great. Tippy toppers,” he rambled, quickly standing up. “I have to go. To pee. I have to go pee.  Just one moment, I’ll be right back.”  
  
Then he took off at a sprint towards the nearest tree.    
  
The older man leaped up, thinking he was making a run for it, but Gavin stopped immediately at the tree, leaning against it and starting to unfasten his trousers.  Ryan slowly turned back to his wet clothes, as confused by Gavin’s strange behavior as much as his own.   
  
He had only just rung them out and slid the still damp tunic and cloak back on when he heard a blood-curdling scream.  
  
“RYAN!”  Ryan was up and running towards Gavin before he even realized he was moving. The younger man was doubled over on the ground, his leg stuck out in front of him.  
  
There was blood everywhere.  Gavin was alternating screaming, and gagging like he wanted to throw up, but never quite did before beginning his screaming anew.  
  
“What happened?” Ryan demanded.  
  
“My leg!” screamed Gavin. “Oh god, I’ve broken it.” Ryan reached to wipe away the blood to see the leg, but Gavin increased his screaming, tears now streaming down his face. “Don’t touch it!”  
  
“How in the hell-” Ryan stopped when he noticed the large hole next to Gavin’s foot.  It looked like an animal den of some sort that had probably collapsed when Gavin stepped on it.  
  
“I’m gonna die, Ryan!”  
  
“You’re not going to die, idiot.” That didn’t do much to quiet Gavin’s screams and sobs of pain.  
  
It was all too much, and it led Ryan to do something he hadn’t done in a long time. He panicked.    
  
Ignoring the screams, he slid his hands underneath the prince - lifting him up and cradling him in his arms - before he took off towards the river they had just passed.  There was a little village north of them along the river. He’d done his best to avoid it before, but now he was heading straight towards it. For all his threats of carrying the man unconscious all the way back to Roosteria, he wasn’t that keen on the idea anymore. For logistical reasons, of course.  Besides, it wouldn’t do him any good if the prince bled out on the way there.    
He knew he shouldn’t move too fast in case he dropped the already injured man, but his feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they jogged along the bank.    
  
“It hurts,” Gavin whimpered pathetically.  
  
“Don’t think about it. Try to put the pain out of your mind.”  
  
“How can I think about anything else?” he whined.  
  
“Try,” Ryan said, though it came out much gentler than he meant it to.  It seemed to help, however, because Gavin’s moans softened into whimpers.    
  
Ryan was grateful for the respite to his ears, but it was a momentary peace.  
  
“Oh god, I’ll never walk again,” Gavin suddenly whined, his moans starting up again in earnest.  “Somebody’ll have to pack me around on their back for the rest of my life.”  
  
“Don’t be an idiot,” Ryan told him, happy that it came out gruffly this time. “You’ll be fine.”  
  
The moans continued, unabated. He continued on, his chest and arms starting to burn from the exhaustion, but he took his own advice and tried not think about it. The prince’s whines of pain were doing a good job of distracting him from the pain, but they were also making him angry enough to want to drop the man and leave him in the forest to rot.  
  
“Shut up, Gavin!”  
  
The prince went silent.  With only the sound of his ragged breathing surrounding him, Ryan began to regret his harsh tone.  
  
“You said my name,” Gavin whispered.  
  
“What?” Ryan asked, refusing to look down at him.  
  
“You said my name. You’ve never said it before.”  
  
“Oh,” Ryan replied. He hadn’t noticed before, and it had just slipped out in his panicked rage.    
  
Gavin didn’t have anything else to say apparently, and Ryan was too busy berating himself for letting the man’s name slip out to speak.  Silence enveloped them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word count wise I think this is about the same size as the other chapters, but it feels much shorter for some reason to me. Maybe because I ended up cutting the last part of it for Chapter 4. Anyway, I will probably post the next chapter on Thanksgiving to make up for the lack of content.
> 
> Anyway! I hope you liked it. If you find any errors or have any helpful critiques on this chapter let me know! I'm pretty new to writing battle scenes so feel free to tell me how terrible it was. Thanks!


	4. Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter's late! Sorry guys, I know I said it would be out yesterday but I ended up completely re-writing this chapter to change some stuff that was going down. 
> 
> Hope you like it though! As always, if you find any errors let me know since I'm going un'betad. Thanks for reading!

They continued on, the silence only broken only by the occasional whimper, and Ryan’s jog had slowed considerably.  He knew the man in his arms was in pain, but there wasn’t much he could think to do about it, especially when he was still arguing with himself on why in the world he cared. He made the mistake of looking down just in time to see a grimace of pain etched across Gavin’s face, and something clenched tightly in his chest. Ryan swallowed, losing the battle within himself.

“Would you rather fight a Ghast or a Creeper?” Ryan said, suddenly.

“What?” Gavin whispered, shock laced through his voice.

Ryan wondered if he’d gone a bit crazy. “I mean, a ghast is huge, true, but it’s a pretty large target, and it doesn’t get too close. You could always hide and regroup. Creeper’s though, they’re supposed to be faster than anything you’ve ever seen.  They would be right up your ass before you knew it.”  He purposefully avoided Gavin’s eyes.

“And they blow up,” Gavin chimed in, his voice calmer than it had been since he’d fell.

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and they blow up. Not much you could do about that,” he agreed.

“Ghast. Definitely. I’d Mark Nutt him right out the sky.”  

Ryan snorted.  “Of course.”

“What about you?” Gavin asked, timidly.

“Creeper,” he said firmly.  

“What? Why?”

Ryan hesitated just barely. “I’m not big on fire.” Gavin opened his mouth to ask, but Ryan plowed on. “Your turn.”

They continued on like this, asking questions back in forth as they continued to increase in ridiculousness. Gavin was even smiling and laughing by the time the trees began to thin out and the roofs of houses began to appear.  

“I don't have to say what would happen to you if you told anyone who you really are, do I?” Ryan asked Gavin, the amusement immediately fading from his voice.

Gavin groaned.

“Didn't think so.”  They left the tree line behind, darting between two buildings, and burst into a relatively empty street.    

A startled yelp made Ryan spin to the right, finally noticing the man standing on a porch next to them. He wasn’t too old, not much older than himself to be honest.  He had a long red beard, and kind eyes that were currently sweeping over the two of them widened in surprise.

“We need a doctor,” he stated simply.

“I can see that,” the bearded man replied, still standing in place. Gavin let out another groan, kicking the man into action.  “I’m sorry, yes, of course. Follow me.” He jumped off the porch and led them to a building across the street.  He held the door open for them, and Ryan adjusted his hold to carry Gavin through the narrow doorway.

The sweet smell of food and the loud blaring of voices washed over Ryan immediately.  He made a sweeping glance, noticing the tables full of people, drinking and laughing.

“A tavern?” Their guide waved him off and made his way towards one of the tables.

“Meg!” A woman with long auburn hair looked up from her conversation with the blonde haired woman behind the bar. 

“Hey, Jack, what’s up?” Her eyes widened when she noticed Ryan standing behind him, holding the very bloody Gavin in his arms.  Arms that were straining at this point.  She leaped from her stool and quickly made her way over to them.  
  
“Oh dear!” Gavin looked up at her pitifully as she looked him over. He let out a weak moan, that sounded more like hamming it up than a genuine noise of pain to Ryan.  The doctor instantly bought it.  She gripped his shoulder in support, fussing over him to the other men.  “The poor baby! Let’s get him in a bed.  Is there any empty rooms, Jack?”  
  
“Of course,” the bearded man replied automatically, taking off up the stairs and motioning for Ryan to follow him.  Meg trailed behind them.    
  
Jack led them down a hallway to the last wooden door and held it open.  Ryan quickly entered, the burning in his arms intensifying now that he knew how close he was to setting the man down.  He slowly laid Gavin down on the bed, nearly groaning in relief as the weight was lifted from his arms. Meg nearly bowled him over getting next to the bed.  
  
“Jack,” she said, her voice far more demanding than when she’d spoken before. “I need alcohol and some clean rags, and send Kerry over to my house to get my stuff.” Jack left without a word, his footsteps steps echoing down the hallway.

Jack left without a word, his footsteps steps echoing down the hallway.  
  
Ryan found a chair in the far corner, and sat, shaking the tension out of his arms.  
  
Meg looked right at him. “Now, what happened?”  She was a young, fairly pretty girl with a sweet voice and kind eyes, Ryan had thought, but the professional mask that she had slipped on now was fairly comforting in its own way.    
  
“Idiot fell in a hole.” 

Gavin squawked in protest, but Ryan ignored him, looking at Meg as he worked to massage out the stiffness in his arms.

“He may have broken it.”

Meg nodded, her hands moving towards Gavin’s pants leg, but he squeaked and pulled it away from her. She smiled at him. “I’m sorry honey, but I need to see how bad it is.”  
  
Gavin shook his head furiously. She continued to try and soothe him, while he held his own hands cautiously over his own leg, blocking her attempts to get close to it.  Jack rushed back in, bearing a bottle of amber liquid and a bucket of water with a few rags hanging off the lip.    
  
“Kerry’s rushing over there right now.”

Meg thanked him and arranged them on the counter beside the bed.  When she saw Gavin squirming away from her on the bed, she sent pleading eyes to Ryan.    
  
He rolled his eyes. “Hey, idiot,” he said, not unkindly. Gavin jerked his head to look at him. “Let her do her thing.”  The softness in his voice a consequence of his own exhaustion, he told himself.  
  
Gavin nodded meekly, gripping the sheets tightly as Meg went to work.  She tried to slowly lift his pant leg up, before finally just ripping it off above the knee. Gavin shrieked, but she ignored it with expert ease.  
  
Ryan leaned back in his chair, amazed by the intensity of her gaze as she examined his leg.  She moved her hands over his leg and knee, asking Gavin what hurt the most, and trying to move it. His attention was torn from the scene when a hand landed on his shoulder.   
  
“How far did you have to carry him?” asked Jack sympathetically, who was suddenly standing over him.  He tried not to show much the man had startled him.  
  
“Eh, not too far,” Ryan lied.  He glanced over at Gavin, who had his eyes squeezed shut, clutching at the wooden bedposts.  “You’d think a scrawny little thing like that wouldn’t be so heavy, but oh well.” The prince’s indignant squawk brought a smile to his face.  
  
Jack gave a deep hearty laugh. These were kind people, he thought to himself.  He hoped he didn’t have to kill them.  
  
His morbid thoughts were interrupted Meg’s sudden laughter.  It was a choked laugh - like it was startled out of her, and she quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment.    
  
Gavin was looking at her in horror. “What? You can’t be serious!”  
  
“Sorry!” she said. She clasped her hands together, smiling slightly. “It’s good news, though, right?”  
  
“How good?” Ryan asked tentatively, as the color seemed to drain from Gavin’s face.  
  
“It’s not broken,” she informed him cheerfully.  
  
Some of the tension eased out him.  It was dangerous enough from him to have Gavin here in the first place, he hadn’t even begun to imagine what they would’ve done if the prince’s leg had been actually broken.

"Then why does the idiot look like he's going to pass out?"  
  
She grinned. Her eyes darted to look at Gavin’s sheepish face before she giggled.  “Truthfully, for the most part, it seems the big baby is perfectly fine.”  
  
Jack coughed, covering up a chuckle at the look of confusion on Ryan’s face.  Ryan’s eyes narrowed as something cold begin to spread through his chest.  He sat up in his chair.  
  
“Oh really?” he asked, his voice slow and precise.  He was clearly asking Meg, but his glare was boring straight through Gavin. Gavin swallowed, not prepared for the weight of the others steely gaze on him. He quickly looked away, waving his arms at the woman.  
  
“What are you talking about? It hurt like the blazes and I still can’t feel my leg-”  
  
“You banged it up real good, no doubt at that,” she said sympathetically, beginning to clean the blood off of his leg. “I’d bet you hit your knee on a rock when you went down, and that can make the whole leg go numb.  Plus, you got a mean little cut out of it, but it’s not too deep.  There are just certain places you can get cut that causes more bleeding than other places. Your bones are all fine, though.”  
  
Gavin pouted, looking down at his leg like it had betrayed him, and she laughed.  
  
“Your ankles a bit swollen, though, so you’ll need to stay off it until tomorrow.  Still, you should be happy it’s not that bad!”  Gavin nodded dumbly, his eyes flickering nervously over to Ryan.  
  
Ryan, who had slowly leaned back in his chair, was trying his best not to let his rage bleed through while the others were still in the room. A young blonde man appeared soon after with the doctor’s bag, handing it over to her, shooting a nervous wave in Ryan and Gavin's direction, and taking off.  Jack and he chatted amiably about the weather, while Meg bandaged up Gavin’s leg.  She tried her best to wrestle some conversation out him, but he only returned her attempts with weak smiles and nervous glances towards his captor.  
  
Ryan had managed to bring himself to smile at her in gratitude by the time she was done.  She waved off his attempt to pay her, only reminding him to keep Gavin off his ankle until the swelling had gone down, and to change his bandage regularly. He promised her a drink on him later, which she gratefully accepted.  
  
“Well, who do I pay for the room then?”  
  
“That would be me, my good sir. This is my place, actually," Jack told him, cheerfully. Ryan dropped some coins into his hands, as Meg filtered out, giving Gavin a friendly wave as she left that he returned weakly.  “You gentlemen are welcome to stay as long as you like. Kerry should have us a nice dinner out in a few hours, and you are more than welcome to come down.”  
  
Ryan thanked them, waving off Jack’s inquiries if they needed anything else. Once the bearded man had left, Ryan’s forced smile faded and his cold blue eyes bore into Gavin. 

Gavin swallowed.  
  
“So, what was your end game here?" Ryan began, slowly, no warmth in his voice at all. "Going to try and get the villagers to help you out?  Hoping to catch me off guard and take off-”  
  
“I wasn’t faking, you big knob!" Gavin screeched at him. "I really thought I’d broke it!”  
  
“You were screaming like you were out of your mind," Ryan growled.  
  
“It bloody hurt!”  
  
“You sounded like you were dying!” Ryan screamed back, frustrated.  
  
“It bloody hurt a lot, didn’t it?!”

Ryan growled, suddenly standing up and striding over to the bed to loom over him.  “I don’t think you realize what a precarious position you are in right now, your highness,” he started, his voice slow and dangerous.  “I’m not your friend. I’m your captor and if try to escape again-”  
  
“I didn’t try to escape! I really thought I’d-”  
  
“You idiot!” Ryan suddenly exclaimed. “Don’t you get it? I was worried-” he cut himself off mid-word.  His face paled, and the anger rushed out of him when he realized what he’d said.

Where had that come from? Had he really been worried about the prince?   
  
Gavin’s look of surprise mirrored his own. “You were what?” he asked incredulously.  
  
Ryan swallowed “I-I was worried that it would fuck up my mission.”  There was a moment of silence as many emotions flickered across Gavin's face.  Suddenly his eyes lit up, and that grin that he was getting far too used to spread across his face.  Ryan’s stomach dropped.  
  
“No, no, no, no!” Gavin squealed. “That’s not what you were going to say.”  
  
“That’s exactly what-” Ryan started, holding his hands up in front of him, trying to backtrack, but Gavin was nearly bouncing from excitement at this point.  
  
“You were worried about me!” he squealed, interrupting Ryan's attempt at defending himself.  “You were worried I was hurt you big mong!” He giggled, joy lighting up his face.  
  
This had to stop.  
  
Ryan grabbed the front of Gavin’s shirt, jerking him forward harshly until their faces were inches apart.  This time, he didn’t regret the fear that exploded in Gavin’s eyes but relished it. “I have been easy on you, and I can see now that it was a mistake. You have definitely received the wrong impression of me. I am a thief, a murderer, and your life means about as much to me as a bug I crush under my foot.  You are only alive right now because I was ordered to bring you in alive. I am not a good man, your Highness, and you’d do well to remember that.”  
  
He was taken aback, however, when Gavin didn’t flinch away from him. Instead, his face seemed to harden, a seriousness overtaking his normally open face.  
  
“You’re not as bad as you try and pretend you are,” he said stubbornly.  
  
Ryan growled, letting go of Gavin’s shirt and flinging back onto the bed and away from him. “You can believe whatever you want, but just know that if you run off while we’re here,” he paused, making sure he had the prince’s attention, “I’ll kill everyone in this place.”    
  
Gavin frowned up at him, still sprawled out where Ryan had thrown him. “You wouldn’t.”  
  
“Try me,” Ryan responded, but it was barely above a whisper. He stalked off, slamming the door behind him.


	5. Eavesdroppers Rarely Hear Something Good

Fortunately, considering his mood, the tavern was not as loud as Ryan was afraid it would be.  He sat in a booth farthest from any other soul, and besides the blonde haired woman who had brought him a pint -“Call me Barb,” she had said, before winking at him- everyone else had left him alone, absorbed in their own whispered conversations.  
  
He knew he should be sitting upstairs with the prince to keep him from giving them away.   He knew it was idiotic to leave the other man alone, but the more space between him and Gavin right now the better. On one hand, It had only taken him a few minutes of stewing and glaring at the table before he calmed down enough to recognize that there was no way Gavin had tried to trick him.  The man just wasn’t capable of that level of deception.  One the other hand, he was absolutely furious at the other man for worming his way into Ryan's world, and even more furious with himself for allowing it to happen.    
  
He wasn't some big sap who went out of his way to allow people into his life and then this stupid spoiled brat had-  
  
"Something on your mind?"  
  
Ryan jumped. He looked up to find himself staring into the warm eyes of the innkeeper, who smiled slightly at Ryan’s obvious surprise. He sat down facing him with a drink of his own. Ryan took a swig of his drink, giving himself a moment to recover.  
  
"I'm fine, thanks."  
  
Jack shrugged, taking a drink. “Just seemed like you had a lot on your mind. Not to mention those glares you were sending towards my table. I was wondering what it had done to offend you.” Ryan shrugged, mimicking Jack’s earlier gesture. The innkeeper just smiled.    
  
They sat in silence, nursing their pints.  Ryan was on edge, wondering what the other man could want from him. Jack was watching the patrons that filled the place, the sides of his eyes crinkling every time he smiled at something he saw.  
  
Ryan waited patiently for the man to say something, but after a few minutes of more silence, his patience was running thing. The inn keeper seemed perfectly happy to sit in silence and watch his patrons.  Not that he didn’t appreciate silence, but Ryan knew the look of someone who was up to something.  He knew on a normal day he would excel at this battle of attrition, but it had been anything but a normal day.  
  
He lasted another five minutes of silent drinking, all the while unashamedly staring daggers at the bearded man before he finally broke.  
  
“Um, Jack was it?”  Jack’s smile widened, and he nodded. “Not that this isn’t some stimulating conversation, but don’t you have anything you need to be doing right now?  Drinks to serve or something?”  
  
The light in Jack’s eyes dimmed slightly, and his smile quirked at the edges. He opened his mouth to respond but was stopped by the sudden appearance of the woman who had brought Ryan his drink earlier.  
  
“Here you go boys!” she exclaimed, setting two fresh pints on their table.  
  
“Thanks, Barb!”    
  
She slapped a hand on his shoulder but turned to stare intently at Ryan. “And who is this cutie?”  
  
He rolled his eyes, while Jack covered a laugh behind a cough.  “Ryan,” he admitted. A large smile slid across her lips, a wild thing that lit up her unnaturally wide eyes. It reminded him momentarily of the prince lying upstairs, and he frowned.  
  
She pouted.  “Aww, Jack, I don’t think your friend likes me.”  Ryan raised an eyebrow, challenging the other man, and was genuinely surprised when Jack started laughing.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, challenging the other man, and was genuinely surprised when Jack started laughing.  
  
“He must be a good judge of character, then.”    
  
Barb laughed despite herself and slapped Jack on the arm good-naturedly.  “Oh, shut it, you! Kerry, Jack’s being mean to me again!”  The young man he’d seen bring Meg her supplies earlier popped up from behind the bar.  
  
“What do you want me to do about it?” Kerry hollered at her.  
  
Ryan watched the exchange, unable to veil his amusement.    
  
“Ugh,” Barb said, “stupid, lazy brat. I’m gonna fire him, Jack.”  
  
“Well, if you’re okay with all the cooking and the cleaning and the stocking-”  Jack began.  
  
“I get it, I get it. Ugh.”  She waved off Jack’s laughter, collected their empty pints, and sauntered back to the bar.  “Have fun with Mr. Grumpy!”  
  
Jack smiled over at him, and Ryan couldn’t help but smirk back at him.  “You’ve got quite a crew here.”  
  
Jack laughed. “Oh, you have no idea. They’re great people, don’t get me wrong, and they keep me from having to do too much work, but they make me question daily if they’re the crazy ones, or if I am.”  
  
Ryan’s eyes flickered towards the stairs. “I know the feeling.”  
  
Jack’s look sharpened.  “So, how do you and,” he trailed off, prompting Ryan for Gavin’s name.  
  
“The idiot?” Ryan asked innocently.  
  
Jack rolled his eyes, but otherwise, let the other man's obvious evasiveness go.  “How do you two know each other?”  
  
The kidnapper didn’t even pause as he rolled out the lie he had come up with the second he’d entered the village. “I’m guarding him for his ‘daddy.’ Need to get him from point a to point b, and can’t let the little baby get a scratch on him.”    
  
“Doing a good job, I see.”  Ryan glared, but Jack only laughed.  “No offense, just teasing you a little.  He seems like the type of kid to find trouble pretty easily, or failing that, the type to make some of his own.”

Ryan glared, but Jack only laughed.  “No offense, just teasing you a little.  He seems like the type of kid to find trouble pretty easily, or failing that, the type to make some of his own.”

“No offense, just teasing you a little.  He seems like the type of kid to find trouble pretty easily, or failing that, the type to make some of his own.”  
  
He didn’t know if it was the blatant truth of the statement or Jack’s warm understanding eyes - not to mention he was already on his second pint- but Ryan let out a groan of frustration and dropped his head into his hands.  “You have no idea. I have never met a more troublesome person in my life. It was supposed to be an easy job, get him from one place to another in one piece. Keep out of sight, and stay out of trouble, and here I feel like I’ve aged two years in two days.”    
  
Jack patted him sympathetically on the shoulder.  Ryan was explaining exactly how many times he’d imagined his hands around the younger man’s neck, when he saw the red haired doctor from earlier heading up the stairs, with a bowl of soup in her hands.  
  
He shrugged off Jack’s hand but quickly gave him a reassuring smile. “Sorry, don't mean to rush off. I just realized the idiot's been up there by himself for a long time. I just need to go make sure he hasn’t choked himself on a blanket or something.” Jack’s laughter followed him up the stairs.

Jack’s laughter followed him up the stairs.  
  
Soft voices drifted towards his ears, coming from the direction of his room, one with Gavin’s distinctive accent. He crept down the hallway and hovered outside the door.    
  
“Thank you again! I was starving,” he heard Gavin saying from inside the room.  
  
“Well, it didn’t look like tall, dark, and scary was going to feed you anytime soon,” she grumbled.  Ryan cringed.  It hadn’t even crossed his mind.  
  
“Aw, he’s just got a lot on his mind.”  He could practically hear Gavin’s smile. “He was worried about me.”  
  
“Really?” Meg asked, and her voice oozed skepticism.  “He seemed pretty upset-”  
  
“He’s just a big knob,” Gavin argued.  “But you should have seen him running me here! He was trying to cheer me up and everything.” Ryan’s face went red. “He’s really a big softie once you get past all the - what are you giggling about?”  
  
“I just wish you could see your face when you talk about him.”    
  
Ryan’s stomach dropped.  
  
“What are you on about?”  
  
“Oh honey,” she said, her voice laced with amusement, “you’ve got it so bad.”  
  
Ryan’s heart thudded loudly in his ears, nearly louder than the denials that Gavin squawked at her.  
  
“Don’t you ‘what are you talking about’ me!” Meg screamed over him. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.  You were looking at him like he’s a piece of steak.”  
  
“B-but,” Gavin stuttered. “Two men, it just- it doesn’t- that doesn’t bother you?” The last part was said in a desperate whisper. It reminded him of the prince’s shattered voice as he shared his life story.    
  
Meg snorted, giggling. “What century do you think this is? Like anyone in Achieva cares about that anymore!”  
  
“I knew it was legal,” Gavin whispered. “I just didn’t know it was accepted for real. Like, by everybody.”  
  
“Oh, please,” Meg said, “You’ll find the odd old bag who gets her knickers in a twist, but we’re not all that way.  Where are you from that’s so backward?”  
  
If Ryan was on top of his game, he would have burst through the door right then.  He would’ve hoisted Gavin over his shoulder and left immediately.  Instead, all he could see were the images of Gavin’s wide grin, and all he could hear was Gavin’s nervous stammer as he was caught looking at Ryan’s naked chest.  He only realized what question had been asked when Gavin answered it.  
  
“Thame.  It’s where I grew up, sorta. It’s,” he paused, searching for the words. “It’s not like here at all,” he said quietly.  
  
“Never heard of it,” she told him, lowering her voice to match his.  “Does everyone from Thame sound like you?”  
  
“Well yeah, it’s an accent, in’it?” Gavin answered honestly.  
  
“No, I mean with the squawking and the screaming-” She was cut off as Gavin proceeded to make the very sounds she was talking about. “I was just teasing!” she said around her laughter.    
  
The laughter faded from her quickly and she turned to him.  “But seriously, I know the look of the smitten, and you are smitten, boy.”  Gavin groaned. Ryan thought he might throw up. “Not that I blame you, the guy is gorgeous.  What with that hair, and that chin,” she trailed off and let an awkward silence fall around them.  Ryan held his breath as he waited for Gavin to deny it, laugh at her, or anything that would make his heart stop beating so fast.  
  
“His eyes,” Gavin sighed. Ryan was definitely going to throw up.

Ryan was definitely going to throw up.  
  
“Oh?” Meg asked innocently, and Ryan could hear her god damn grin.  “I didn’t really get a good look at them.”  
  
“They’re just so, so- blue,” Gavin grumbled. “It’s not fair.  I wanted to hate him, but-”  
  
“Ryan?” Jack’s voice filtered down the hallway, and Ryan nearly leaped out of his skin.  He swallowed and forced himself to turn around. The bearded man’s brow was taught, and his lips set in a thin, confused line. He knew exactly what it looked like, his ear pressed against the door, and his face burning red in embarrassment.  He was just glad Jack couldn’t see his heart beating out of his chest, or the thoughts running through his head.  
  
He should have heard him coming; he would have if he wasn’t so damn caught up with his captive and the insanity that was happening behind the closed door in front of him.    
  
Ryan straightened up and took a step towards the bearded man.  
  
“I can explain,” he said, and it sounded weak even to his own ears.    
  
“Really?” Jack raised an eyebrow.  “I think I understand what was happening pretty well."  
  
Ryan cringed. "I didn't want to interrupt," he said weakly.

He was usually much better at this sort of thing than he’d proved himself to be in the last two days. The prince was going to be the death of him.  Fortunately, the door to the room opened and Meg silently walked out, jumping when she nearly ran into Ryan.  
  
“Oh!” she said, “it’s you.”  A small smile spread across her face. “Were you coming to check on him?”  
  
“Um,” Ryan started. “Y-yeah, um, how is he-”  
  
“He’s perfectly fine,” she said, passing by Ryan as she made her way down the hallway. She turned back, giving him a sly grin. “Just brought him some food.  I told him to get some rest, but he’d love to have some company.  Go ahead.”  
  
Jack looked back and forth between the two of them, slowly realizing that he was missing something.  He opened his mouth to ask, but instead let out a noise of surprise when his arm was grabbed and he was pulled roughly in the direction of the stairs.  
  
“Meg, what are you-”  
  
She shushed him and continued dragging him down, sending Ryan a wink before they disappeared. He was really, and truly, going to throw up.  
  
“Meg?” Gavin’s nervous voice floated through the open door.  “What’s going on out there?”  
  
Ryan stood still, his hand grasped on the edge of the doorway.  He was many things, but he wasn’t an idiot.  He knew he felt something towards the prince. Something that he was not used to feeling, and definitely not something that was welcome in any way right now.  Luckily, a life of crime had led him to mastery of repressing feelings. So, that's what he would do.  
  
Straightening his back, he donned a mask that had served him well in the past, and he walked into the room.    
  
“Oh!” Gavin squeaked in surprise.  “I thought I heard somebody talking to Meg.”  
  
Ryan could repress some things, but he couldn’t help but notice the way the prince’s fingers fidgeted at the fur throws that covered the bed, and the way he couldn’t quite meet Ryan’s eyes.  
  
“She said you should probably get some rest.”  He took the chair next to the bed that had probably been only recently vacated by the young doctor.  Only briefly did he consider moving it to the other side of the room, but dismissed it immediately out of stubbornness.  
  
“Oh, okay yeah. I’m pretty tired anyway.”  
  
Ryan placed his feet on the edge of the bed, leaning back in the chair.  Gavin’s expressions seemed to lose their apprehensive edge and switched to confusion.

“Are you going to watch me sleep?” he asked incredulously.

Ryan chuckled, crossing his arms, and tilting his head back.  “I'm going to sleep too, idiot.”  
  
“Oh,” Gavin replied simply.  “Yeah, that makes sense.”  
  
Ryan opened one eye, giving him a strange look. “Why wouldn’t it? I’ve had as much sleep as you, which is pretty damn little considering.”  
  
Gavin blushed, looking away. “I know, you just don’t seem like you do normal things like sleep.”  
  
Ryan gave him a wide-eyed stare, that just caused Gavin’s blush to darken. “I know I call you an idiot a lot, but please tell me you know that everybody sleeps-”  
  
“Oi! You know what I mean!  You just seem so cool it’s hard to imagine you being tired, is all.”  
  
Oh, Ryan thought to himself.  
  
It wasn’t an awkward silence that they fell into, but it definitely wasn’t comfortable.  Even though he was staring down at the bed, Ryan could see Gavin’s eyes flickering over to him waiting anxiously for his reply.  Ryan would’ve loved to give him one, especially a simple, non-committal response.  Maybe even tease him some more.  Unfortunately, something was stuck in his throat as everything he was trying to repress tried to fight it’s way up and out.    
  
He couldn’t look away from the prince.  Gavin’s hair was even messier than usual, flat against his forehead, unlike the finely styled way it had looked when they met in the marketplace. He looked so tiny in the large bed, his hands fiddling with the covers, and the deep red blush covering his face.  Ryan's hands clenched and unclenched again against his own chest, aching to reach out and touch the other man.  To swipe that hair out of his eyes, or feel the small stubble that had popped up overnight.  
  
Ryan gripped his shirt tightly, keeping his hands still, and clenched his eyes shut. “Well I am tired, so shut up for a bit and let’s get some rest. Hopefully, when we wake up your ankle will be miraculously healed.”  
  
Gavin snorted in response, and Ryan could hear him rustling around on the bed.  He waited until he could hear the other man’s soft snores before he opened his eyes.  The prince was facing away from him, the majority of his body covered by the fur throw.  He let out a sigh, closing his eyes again, and trying to find a comfortable spot in the chair.  
  
It was going to be fine, he thought to himself.  Yes, he felt something for the man, he pretty much had to admit that now, but it was entirely superficial.  What hot blooded male wouldn’t like those big eyes and that wide grin staring up at them?  I mean, the boy was practically sex on legs.    
  
However, those feelings would fade, Ryan told himself.  He could find himself a thousand willing bodies once he collected his reward from Burnie, and none of them would be quite as loud and obnoxious.  
  
And if the last thing he thought about before he slept was Gavin whispering, “his eyes,” then he didn’t remember it in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo it's a week late. Sorry! I can't really promise after this point that this will stick to the schedule too close, but the chapters will show up. I'm just bad about getting stuck on a part and fucking with it for forever until I'm happy with it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and thanks for being patient though! Hope you like the chapter!


	6. Guilt's A Funny Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I am so sorry this hasn't been updated in a while. It's not been abandoned by any means, just got stuck on something and had to work my way around. Went ahead and posted this part just to reassure you guys I'm still working on it, but the next chapter is mostly written. Sorry it's a bit short, but I hope it's not terrible!
> 
> Not going to lie, writing this part was like pulling teeth. I wanted to set some things up right, and they just wouldn't line up correctly. The next chapter was a joy though :) Thank you so much for your patience!

Ryan wasn't sure what time it was when he woke up. It was still light outside, but it had to be close to dinner time if the sounds of laughter and drunken conversation that wafted from downstairs were any indications. He left the Prince curled up inside the fur covers and made his way downstairs.

He was not pleased by the suggestive smiles that Meg and Jack were sending his way as soon as he stepped off the stairs. They had obviously compared notes and discovered exactly what had happened in the hallway, and he was not up for any sort of conversation about it.

He quickly ordered some food for himself and the prince, sitting at the opposite end of the bar from Jack and Meg and doing everything he could to avoid their gazes. He softly inquired with Barb if anyone in town was currently selling a horse, but she gave him a sad shake of her head. That had been their only other option besides waiting until his ankle was healed, but Ryan hadn't put much hope in it. It was right in the middle of the harvest season, and he didn't imagine many people had extra livestock to go around. It looked like they really were stuck here until the prince was able to walk around.

Defeated, he trudged up the stairs to wake the prince so they could share a tense and silent dinner. Gavin went back to sleep as soon as he finished, and Ryan stayed awake staring at him, and contemplating exactly what he was going to do now.

Fortunately, word had not reached out this way of the prince’s sudden departure, which he had been counting on. Caleb should have been leading the trail in the opposite direction until he reached the sea, which gave them roughly a two-week head start. As he predicted, the crown was not going to announce publicly that their heir was missing, especially when all evidence pointed to the prince fleeing into the night of his own volition.

His eyes flickered over the prince’s sleeping form, his hands still urging him to cup the boy’s face or smooth the bangs from his face.

It had nearly been a perfect plan.

Breakfast was just as awkward as dinner had been the night before. Both of them too tense, and neither wanted to be the one to break it first. They spent most of the day in the room; Ryan, sitting in the corner reading a book lent to him by Jack, and Gavin squirming around in the bed.

“Ryan," Gavin whined from the bed, finally breaking their tense silence, “why can’t I go downstairs?”

“You heard the doctor,” Ryan told him, not even looking up from his book. “You need to stay off your ankle.”

It had only been a day, but Gavin’s leg was already much better. Most of the feeling had come back, except around his knee, but it felt far more normal than the day before. His cut was healing well, with no sign of infection. His ankle was still a bit swollen, and he still had a nasty bruise around his heel, but with a little help from Ryan or Jack, he could get around.

“But this is boring.”

Ryan shrugged and continued reading.

Gavin sighed and flopped back on the bed, his arms stretched out the sides.

“Jack asked you if you wanted a book as well and you said no.”

“I don’t want to read a stupid book! I wanna go downstairs and talk to people. These are my people, it could be my only chance to meet them.”

‘They won’t be your people for long,’ Ryan thought suddenly with a twinge of regret. Gavin wasn't a bad lad really. He was definitely an idiot, but Ryan had met far worse people with far more power. The kid probably would have made a good leader with the right people surrounding him.

“You know,” Gavin started suddenly. “You’re really smart.”

Ryan jerked slightly but kept his eyes trained on his book. “Um, thanks?”

“No, I mean, like you use big words and you speak really nice, and you read and stuff. Not normal scoundrel behavior, is it?”

Ryan mouthed 'scoundrel' to himself mockingly and shook his head. “How would you know, your highness? Met many scoundrels in your day?”

Gavin blushed. “Well-”

“I may be a nerr do well, but that doesn't mean I have to be ignorant.”

Gavin opened his mouth to argue, but Ryan quickly cut him off.

“Speaking of ignorance, ‘scoundrel’? Really?”

The prince huffed. “Rogue, rascal, blackguard, whatever you want to be called, does it matter?”

Ryan was silent as a small, bitter smile tinted his lips. “Vagabond,” he finally whispered quietly.

“Well, yeah, I guess-” Gavin began, confused, but was quickly interrupted by the entrance of his young red-headed doctor.

“He-llo!” she said, cheerfully, placing a bowl of water and clean bandages on the table beside the bed, before sitting in the chair Ryan had slept in the night before. Ryan’s intense look quickly left, the fake cheer he’d been using the whole time instantly lighting up his face.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted.

“So how did we sleep?”

“Fiiine,” Gavin told her petulantly, “but the big bully won’t let me go downstairs.”

“You need to stay off your ankle,” Ryan replied automatically, but Meg pouted at him as well. “You’re the one who told me that!”

“Aww, he’s a big meany,” she said, turning to Gavin.

“I know,” Gavin agreed. “He’s gonna keep me trapped here all day.”

They continued to pout, both puffing out their bottom lips more and more in an exaggerated display. It eventually became a competition on who could make the most pitiful looking face, Ryan forgotten completely, until they both collapsed into giggles.

Ryan rolled his eyes and went back to his book.

“Hey, you don’t have to stay up here with him,” Meg told him, smiling. “I’ll keep watch over the patient.”

“No thanks,” he told her, smiling back. Gavin frowned, looking back and forth between the two of them.

Her smile faltered. “Oh, but you don’t want to hear two silly billy's gossiping do you?”

“Nah, go right ahead.” Meg gave him a real pout this time, but Ryan instantly returned his attention to his book, ignoring them both. Gavin just looked back and forth between them both, confused.

The young doctor bounced back quickly, quickly informing Gavin of the comings and goings of the little village, while Ryan did his best to tune them out. He had no interest in listening to their conversation, and in all truth, he’d much rather enjoy sitting downstairs talking to Jack, but he didn't want to give the girl a chance to let Gavin know about anything Ryan may or may not have overheard.

“It's tomorrow?” Gavin suddenly shouted. Ryan looked up to see the prince bouncing around on the bed. “I can't believe I forgot!”

“Is what tomorrow?” Ryan couldn't help but ask.

“The Herobrine festival!” Gavin nearly screamed while Meg giggled into her hand.

“The what?”

“He’s not from around here,” Gavin explained quickly as he saw Meg’s confused look. “It’s to celebrate Herobrine!” At Ryan’s blank stare, he continued. “Oi! Don’t tell me you've never heard of Herobine?”

Ryan rolled his eyes, realizing this ‘Herobrine’ must be cut from the same cloth as Mark Nutt.

Meg clapped her hands, joy lighting up her face. “Oh! You’re staying for it, right? You have to see the Herobrine festival at least once.”

“No,” Ryan said simply, turning away from them, and Gavin sighed leaning back onto his bed.

“But-”, Meg began, but Ryan cut her off.

“No,” he calmly repeated again.

“You suck,” Gavin groaned from the bed. Meg nodded in agreement, but Ryan just shrugged. Thankfully, they ignored him for the rest of their conversation, and he went back to pretending to read his book.

After Meg left, Ryan could feel Gavin’s eyes on him, but he refused to look up.

“Rye,” Gavin began in a whine.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not my name,” he quickly interjected.

“It’s a nickname, you bully. Like, Rye bread.”

Ryan’s eye twitched, but he didn't say anything else.

“Come on, Rye, can we please stay tomorrow night. I haven’t gotten to celebrate the Herobrine festival since I was a little boy, and it’s just one extra night, and-”

“Once again your highness, do I have to keep reminding you of the current position you are-”

“I know exactly what position I’m in!” Gavin screamed suddenly, and Ryan had no choice but to look up at him.

His knuckles were white as they clenched into the blankets around him, his eyes and lips turned downward in tightly laced fury. “I know who you are, what you’re doing, and what’s going to happen to me. I’m going to be used as nothing more than a bargaining tool while Burnie and Geoff posture and threaten war on each other.” He took a deep breath, his voice suddenly quiet. “I’ll be locked in a room that I’ll probably never get to leave again until Geoff marches soldiers up to his door, which will probably end in me getting my throat slit.”

Ryan slowly sat up in his chair as Gavin’s pointed but depressed fury washed over him.

“I’m not going to fight you because I’m pretty sure you could bash my head in with a rock pretty damn easily, but you can’t blame me for fighting for the last little bit of freedom I could ever have.” He took a deep breath, glaring hatefully down at his own legs. “I figured if anybody could understand that, it’d be you, _Mr. Vagabond_.”

Ryan winced.

Gavin opened his mouth to start again but stopped when Ryan slammed his book down on the nearest table, suddenly out of his chair, and stopping Gavin’s next words in his throat.

The Prince curled against the wall, waiting for the explosion that was surely coming his way. He nearly let out a whimper as Ryan stomped towards him, only to pass right by him, and out the door, slamming it behind him.

Life continued on in the tavern much as it did every day. Older men who had long since retired sat by themselves drinking away their days, or catching up with their friends, reminiscing about their younger days. It was mostly silent, except for the occasional wheezing laugh, or Barbara’s sudden outbursts at Kerry that would waft out from the kitchen. As the sun set, younger men began to wander in, exhausted but proud from a long days work in the field. There were younger couples, snuggled up into booths in a world of their own, and the occasional shrillness of an annoyed wife come to collect her husband or the bellowing of a young man with too much to drink(which was always followed by Barb’s sharp reprimands and Jack’s soothing tone).

Through it all, Ryan sat in the farthest corner, his hands steepled and his brow furrowed. Barb dropped a drink off at one point before scurrying away, but it sat untouched. The others had thankfully stayed away, leaving him to his thoughts.

He was not a good man. To come from such stock as he did, to have seen the things that he had. He’d never really believed that he’d had much of a choice. His life had been spent on the run, using people and being used by them, learning the hard way that kindness was a careful act put forth only through as a necessity for society to allow itself to form.

Yet, here he was, practically feeling Jack’s concerned glances that were shot his way every so often, and unable to ignore Meg’s narrowed eyes and worried looks that she shot towards the stairs, only to be deterred by a gentle shake of Jack’s head. Gavin’s carefree nature he could attribute to ignorance, but to find a village of people who were bursting at the seams with kindness was not something he ever expected to find on this mission.

It had only been a few days, but Ryan could already feel something changing inside him. Images of Gavin’s easy smile flickering in and out before his eyes and filling his chest with a warmth that he’d never felt before. He wasn't used to these strong feelings that kept griping at him, and he couldn't even begin to recognize where they were coming from.

He barely even noticed when Jack slid into the seat opposite him.

“Hey man, how’s it going?”

Ryan jerked, only seeming to register the man after he had spoken. Jack gave him a reassuring smile, readying himself to comfort the man, and Ryan felt his chest tighten again.

Guilt. That’s what it was, gripping it’s tight fingers around his heart and weighing down his stomach. He felt guilty for lying to these people, and for- for  _everything_ he was doing to Gavin. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt guilty for something. Maybe the first time he'd stolen a coin so as not to starve, or the first throat he'd slit to stay alive, but that had been so long ago. 

“We’re staying,” he said suddenly, and Jack was visibly startled by the outburst.

“Okay?”

“Another night,” he clarified quickly, coughing to the embarrassment that was tenting his cheeks. “We’re staying another night.”

Jack’s confusion quickly spread into a wide grin. “That’s great, man! You staying for the festival?”

This was perfect. He’d let the boy enjoy the festival, to assuage his guilt, and then they’d slip out in the middle of it. Maybe even swipe a horse on the way out of town, when everyone was too drunk or exhausted to notice. On horseback it was only a week, maybe less, to Roosteria, and then Ryan could drop the boy off, collect his reward, and quickly get to forgetting all about this annoying business.

“Yeah,” he agreed, with a smile that he didn't have to force. “Ga-” he immediately threw himself into a coughing fit, taking a swig of his lukewarm ale and waving away Jack’s concerned looks. “Sorry about that, got choked on my own spit. Yeah, the idiot wants to stay for it, and he’s guilted me into it.”

Ryan sipped his drink, smiling and nodding as Jack went into excited detail about the festival, trying to smother down the fear that was trickling down his spine. He’d almost said the prince's damn name. These people, ( _Gavin,_ whispered a cruel voice in his head) were messing with his head. He was starting to slip in ways he hadn’t since he was a young boy fresh on the streets with nothing but an empty stomach and a stubborn will to live.

He had to get away from these people as soon as possible, or he was going to get himself killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is going to be so much fun! 
> 
> I hope you guys like the little hints into Ryan's past, there will be much more where that came from.


	7. The Herobrine Festival: Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've just realized I've never named the damn chapters? Guess I really should've been doing that. Anyway, the festival Part 1! Hope it's not too terrible!

Surrounded by his people, Gavin was truly in his element.  He laughed with them, enjoying their stories and asking the stupidest questions that Ryan was sure the villagers had ever heard, but Gavin’s pouting only seemed to endear him to them even more.  Ryan wanted to regret letting the prince downstairs, but every time he saw him throw back his head and laugh at a story someone had told him, or the way his forehead would crinkle when Meg or a stranger would rib at his innocently ignorant questions he would allow himself to just enjoy the moment.  Gavin might never get another chance like this in his life, and he might as well let the man enjoy it.    
  
The tavern had filled up pretty quickly, apparently tending to the fields could wait on such a special day.  He hadn’t spoken a word to Jack or Barbara the whole day, the latter stopping only to refill his drink, giving him an exhausted smile before disappearing back into the crowd. People wandered freely in and out, some of them carrying snacks and trinkets they had purchased from the vendors that lined the streets outside.  It was a sea of smiling faces.  
  
He’d spent the afternoon slumped in his corner booth, watching Gavin and Meg socialize with everyone they met, and avoiding their attempts to drag him into it.  
  
Still, as he watched his captive smile and laugh, he was unable to completely keep away the amused smile that would occasionally find itself creeping onto his face. Though, he quickly hid it as soon as the target of the smile appeared through a gap in the crown, and slid into the booth beside him so close that their thighs were touching.    
  
Ryan raised his right eyebrow, tilting his head towards the empty opposite side of the booth, but Gavin just laughed and lightly punched him in the shoulder.  
  
“Oi, Rye bread. Why’re you sitting over here all alone? These people are top!”  Gavin’s flushed red cheeks told him that his tankard wasn’t the only one Barbara was keeping filled.  
  
“I’m just fine over here.”  
  
Gavin rolled his eyes.  “But it’s so boring over here.  You’re supposed to have fun!”  
  
“Nah,” Ryan told him playfully, the festive atmosphere and strong ale relaxing him more than he should have allowed.     
  
Gavin groaned. “You suck, Rye.”    
  
“Oh no, you’ve wounded me. How will I ever recover?”  
  
Gavin rolled his eyes again before he seemed to realize something and his lips quirked into that blinding smile that Ryan didn’t think he’d ever get used to.  
  
“Maybe you’d have more fun out on the street.  We could go check out the play-”  
  
“We’ve been over this,” Ryan quickly interrupted, his playful tone replaced with his normal sternness. “There are too many people out there, guards included.  I’m taking a big enough risk with these people here, but I’m hoping they’ll all be too drunk for anyone to recognize you.”    
  
Gavin groaned again, but his shoulders hunched over resigned to Ryan’s stubbornness.  “Oh well, thought I’d try.” Ryan felt that familiar pang of guilt.  The one that had apparently taken over his life and led him into the series of stupid decisions he’d made over the last few days.  He suddenly wanted to apologize, but where would he even start. It was a small thing, keeping him locked inside a tavern when he still fully planning on destroying the others life.  
  
Gavin slid out of the booth, patting Ryan on the shoulder, and quickly looking around the bar, obviously looking for his redheaded friend. “Well you stay here then grumpy, I’m going to keep making friends.”  
  
“Maybe when it get’s dark,” Ryan felt himself saying, though he felt no control over the words.  
  
Gavin quickly turned to look at him.  “Really?”   
  
Ryan slowly nodded. “Yeah, we’ll head out when the sun goes down. You need to keep your hood up. And we have to avoid the guards. Some of them may have trained at the palace.”  
  
Gavin nodded ecstatically, gushing out his thanks while he bounced in place from excitement, but Ryan quickly looked away to avoid that smile that seemed to always do him in. He only looked up when heard the prince shuffling away back into the crowd.  
  
The light had only just stopped streaming in from the front door when Gavin was standing next to his table, bouncing on his toes. Ryan sighed, standing with sluggish reluctance, but Gavin ignored him nearly bouncing his way out the door.  He left his empty tankard at the bar, ignoring the wide grin Jack shot his way and followed after the prince.  
  
It was far more crowded than Ryan had thought possible for such a small town.  People were packed into the small streets, crammed in between the colorfully, but hastily, erected booths that lined them. Children ran between the legs of people standing in the street to speak to a friend they haven’t seen in years. Loud drunken men stumbled along, supported by their friends, who apologized loudly to each passerby they inadvertently hit.  Performers of every kind stood scattered throughout, each in outlandish costumes, juggling, dancing, or playing music. Jack had warned him that people rode for miles to celebrate, but it was another thing to see it firsthand.    
  
Gavin was wide-eyed beside him, just a few steps out the door; his excited bouncing stilled as he took in everything.  Ryan rolled his eyes and pulled the boys’ hood over his head.    
  
“Keep your hood up, idiot.”  
  
Gavin giggled, too excited to take Ryan’s words to heart. “Sorry, Rye! This is just top!”  
  
“You’ve lived here your whole life, surely you’ve seen this before?”  
  
He shook his head. “Not since I was a lad, and I was so young I barely remember it.  And then we-” he paused and leaned close to Ryan and whispered, “then we always stayed in the castle during it.  Geoff said it was a festival for the people, they didn’t want a royal procession trampling through their streets when they were supposed to be celebrating.”  
  
Ryan couldn’t take his eyes off the man down the street currently swallowing a flaming sword.  “If this is what they do in the villages, I can’t imagine what it looks like in the capital.”  
  
“It’s lovely,” Gavin quietly whispered. “From what I could see.”    
  
An image of Gavin, staring out a castle window as he watched the crowded streets below filtered through his mind, and tugged at his heart.    
  
“Ah,” Ryan simply replied, not sure what else to say. It didn’t seem to matter, however, as Gavin took off into the crowd.  Ryan grabbed his arm, pulling him back to his side.  
  
“Don’t go off without me.”  
  
He rolled his eyes, but nodded and slowed to keep pace with the older man.  
  
Gavin wanted to see everything. He stopped them at every single booth, knocking down adults and children alike to view the handcrafted trinkets that lined them.  They were mostly things you would find anywhere: dolls of princesses’ and knights’, toy swords and bows, creepers and ender dragon figures - and to Ryan’s confusion, tons of toy cows. Yet, nearly every booth contained a doll of a plain clothed man with bright red eyes.  
  
“That’s Herobrine,” Gavin told him, as Ryan picked one up to examine it.    
  
“Made them myself,” the young woman behind the booth told them through a toothy grin, while an older man stood off to the side yelling at two boys who were sword fighting close to the booth.  
  
“They’re lovely,” Gavin told her wistfully, picking up one of his to admire, before gently placing it back down.  
  
Ryan sighed. He couldn’t stop imaging the prince staring longingly out his castle window at the cheering crowds below.    
  
“How much?” he found himself asking. Gavin gaped openly at him as they exchanged coins, but he ignored him, thanking the woman and tossing the doll to the prince, who barely managed not to drop it.  Ryan immediately turned away from the booth, walking back into the crowded street at a determined pace. When Gavin caught up with him, he was clutching the figure to his chest and beaming.  
  
“Thanks, Rye.”  
  
“Just didn’t want to hear your whining,” he grumbled. Gavin giggled, but didn’t challenge him, and clutched the figure even tighter.

“Where’d your shadow go?” Ryan asked while they waited in line for some sort of sweet that Gavin had demanded he had to try.  
  
“She said we’d see her at the play.”  
  
“The play?”  
  
“It’s the story of Herobrine,” Gavin told him.  
  
“And that is?” Ryan prompted him.  
  
A playful smile stretched across the prince’s face. “You’ll find out at the play, won’t you?”  
  
Ryan rolled his eyes. “And the cows? Is that part of the story?”    
  
“Yup,” he told him before the people in front of them stepped away and they made it to the front of the booth.  
  
“Two Golden apples please,” Gavin asked immediately.  
  
Ryan started to tell the man to only bring them one, but at Gavin’s intense look he sighed and handed over the money.    
  
“A Golden Apple? Do I have to wait for the play for that too?”  
  
Gavin laughed at Ryan’s annoyed tone. “Well, they are a pivotal part,” he began slyly, but the merchant interrupted him when he returned with two apples on sticks.  Gavin squealed his thanks, and took them both, handing Ryan his only after they had wandered off from the booth.  
  
Gavin immediately bit into his, groaning out little appreciative sounds that Ryan did his best to tune out.  He was halfway through before he noticed Ryan was just staring at his in contemplation.  
  
“Try it!”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“Have you never had a caramel apple?”    
  
Ryan shook his head and nearly jumped when Gavin squealed.  
  
“Oh, Rye! You’re going to love it.  It’s just an apple, right, but it’s got caramel all around it, and then honey too, but they only do that during the festival.  Cause, ya know, GoldenApplee?”  
  
“Sure,” he responded sarcastically, still eying the thing wearily.  
  
“Just try it, you knob! If you don’t like it we’ll go right back to the tavern, promise.”    
  
Ryan shrugged, unable to back away from such a tempting offer, and immediately took a bite. His eyes shot open wide immediately, immediately looking straight into Gavin’s smug smile.  He wanted to be mad at the man, but he couldn’t deny it, the damn thing was delicious. He chewed silently, before immediately taking another bite.  
  
“Told you,” Gavin said smugly.

 

“You suck at this,” Ryan told him, enjoying the annoyed glare the prince gave him.  
  
“That’s really helpful.”  
  
“You’re welcome,” he replied cheerfully.  
  
Gavin growled and adjusted his stance.  He cocked his arm back, the metal from the knife in hand shining in the moonlight. He let out a primal scream and shot his hand forward, flinging the knife with all he had. It flew through the air with deadly intent, before slamming into the wooden bullseye handle first before clattering to the ground to join Gavin’s other attempts.    
  
“Aw, sorry about that son,” the merchant told him through a wide grin. The prince squawked in outrage, and the people around him broke out into laughter, Ryan chuckling along with them.  
  
“Oi!” Gavin yelled, pointing at Ryan. “Like you could do it, either!”  
  
Ryan shrugged and slid a few more coins over to the man.  He carefully picked over the knives he was handed, testing the blades against the hairs on his arms, before finally deciding on one. Gavin watched, entranced, as the man adjusted his stance and firmly grasped the knife between his fingers in a far a more masterful way than Gavin had. He took a deep breath, eying the bull's eye before he jutted his hand forward in a quick fling to send the knife flying directly into the bull's eye.  
  
Gavin gasped, staring at the embedded knife in stunned silence.  
  
“You were saying?”  
  
“Wha-how-” Gavin stuttered out, his eyes flickering between the bull's eye and Ryan’s easy smile.  Surprisingly, his stunned confusion quickly shifted to joy and leaped forward to grab Ryan’s arm.  “That was amazing!”  
  
Ryan did his best to keep down the embarrassed flush that was threatening to spread across his cheeks, but he couldn’t ignore the little flip in his stomach.  
  
“That was just top, Rye! Where did you learn to do that?” Gavin asked, pure admiration in his eyes.  
  
Ryan shrugged, waving Gavin off him and gesturing towards the frowning merchant.  “Go get a prize, dumb ass.”  
  
Gavin squealed, and turned his back to Ryan, practically bouncing over to prize wall.  
  
While Gavin was distracted, Ryan handed his remaining knives over to the teenage boy waiting in line behind him, waving off his stuttered thanks. The merchant begrudgingly handed Gavin the toy cow he had been trying to win, and he had to drag the boy away before they upset the man even more. As soon as they were back in the street, Gavin turned a sly grin on him.  
  
“I saw that you know.”  
  
“That was sort of the point.”  
  
“No, you smeg pot,” he admonished, giggled when Ryan mouthed ‘ _smeg pot_ ’ to himself.  “You made that boy’s day, I bet.”  
  
Ryan scoffed. “Not like I needed them anymore, I’d already won.”    
  
“But you could’ve got a better prize!”  
  
“But,” he began, _‘You wanted the cow’_ getting stuck in his throat.  He coughed quickly. “No need to show off or anything,” he finished lamely.     
  
He ignored Gavin’s knowing looks to wave down a passing ale vendor and bought them both a tankard.  It was really the last thing he needed, his mind already loosened from the pint’s he had drunk in the tavern earlier, but he just couldn’t seem to stop himself from making these terrible decisions at this point.  
  
Might as well enjoy himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just pure schmoop. Just pure god damn schmoop. It get's a bit more angsty later, but if you're looking for heart wrenching believe me I am not your girl. I hope you like it anyway, though! 
> 
> This chapter, and the second part, brought to you by the song Letter to Dana by Sonata Artica. Along with many Spotify playlists of various Ren Faire music.
> 
> Also, I'm at sailorbryant.tumblr.com if anybody wants to send me any asks about the fic, or to just generally send me brutal reminders to finish the next chapter. I welcome all.


	8. The Herobrine Festival: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys enjoy a play, though Ryan mostly enjoys his ale.

When they reached the makeshift theater, Ryan had to stop Gavin from plowing through to the front row, grasping at the back of the prince’s jacket. 

“Nice try, but we are sitting in the back.”  
  
“But Rye,” he complained, though it was lacked the force of his earlier whining.  Apparently, he was having too much fun to truly bring out his pure petulant side. Still, Ryan kept a tight grip on him until he found them a small spot in the back partially hidden under the branches of a large oak.    
  
He sat Gavin down on the side end of the bench against the trunk of the tree, shielding the other side of him with his own body. Gavin huffed, grumbling about his shitty view, but Ryan was already light headed from the ale he had consumed earlier and found himself mocking Gavin’s accent in an exaggerated voice.  Which sent the prince’s outrage into even higher octaves until they were finally shushed by a woman sitting in front of them.  
  
Ryan didn’t know what started it, the woman’s fierce rage, or Gavin’s scandalized wide-eyed stare, or just the absurd reality of his current situation, but he burst out laughing. A rich, hearty rumble of laugh that made his stomach and cheeks burn from under use.  
  
The woman gave him a cold-eyed stare, before turning away from them in disgust.  After his laugh had finally died down to an amused chuckle, he turned to his companion, only to find the other watching him an intense look.  He went silent, quickly turning his head, and taking another sip of his drink while looking anywhere but at the prince.  
  
Gavin shuffled around beside him, trying to turn his gaze back towards him, but Ryan kept a steady eye on the rapidly filling auditorium.  
  
“So, what should I name my cow?” Gavin asked suddenly.  
  
“What?”  
  
“It’s tradition, you have to give the cow a name.”  
  
“Doesn’t it already have a name?”  
  
“Noo,” Gavin explained like Ryan was simple, “that’s the whole point. You get to give him a name.”  
  
Ryan chuckled, finding it easier and easier to do so. “Sorry for not understanding the story of a play I haven’t seen.”  
  
“It’s not just a play, Rye, it’s history,” he grumbled.  
  
Ryan rolled his eyes but held out his empty hand towards the prince.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Hand it over, let’s get a look at him,” Ryan told him, sitting his nearly empty drink down, still holding his other hand out towards the cow Gavin was clutching.  
  
Gavin stared at him. “What?” he repeated.  
  
Ryan rolled his eyes and snatched the straw stuffed doll away from him, ignoring the squawk of protest, and began to examine it.  “You can’t just name something without even seeing it.”  
  
Gavin watched him intently, a smile slowly starting to form, but Ryan just ignored him, bouncing the doll around in his hand.  
  
“I was thinking Horatio,” Gavin told him, amusement tinting his words.  
  
“Horatio? Terrible name for a cow,” he scoffed.  
  
“Oi!”  
  
Ryan ignored him, turning the cow over, before lifting it up to stare directly into its black button eyes. Gavin leaned over, both of them staring intently at the small, cheaply made toy before Ryan lifted it up triumphantly.  
  
“Edgar.”  
  
“Edgar?”  
  
“What? That’s a solid name for a cow.”  Ryan ignored the prince’s judging look and moved to hand him the cow back. The prince shook his head and pushed it back towards him.  
  
“You keep it. You named it, it’s yours now.”  
  
Ryan gave him a strange look before he finally just shrugged and placed it on his shoulder, securing it in place with the strap that usually held his quiver.    
  
Gavin giggled into his hand, amusement glittering his already bright eyes.  “You’re so weird, Ryan.”  
  
“You’re weird,” he retorted.  At the prince’s snort, his eyes narrowed, glaring at the other in faux anger.  He ran his hand across the toy cow’s back, petting it gently. “Don’t make me sic Edgar on you.”  
  
  
Gavin scoffed at him, but delight bounced around behind his eyes.  “Wow, Ry, I can’t believe you’re just so-so-” he trailed off, his brows drawn down in thought, as he searched for the right word.  
  
“Yeah? I’m so what?” he asked, challengingly.  
  
“You know,” Gavin said around a giggle, a small, sweet smile popping onto his lips, as his eyes drifted away from Ryan’s like he was suddenly avoiding them. With that, Ryan felt the light, teasing air around them slip away, replaced with something a little heavier.    
  
It was thick around his mind, throbbing in his ears and coating his throat as he let out a breathy whisper, “No, I don’t.”  
  
Gavin’s eyes snapped back to his, the smile was gone as he felt the tension as well.    
  
“Why don’t you tell me?” he whispered again, and he didn’t even know what question he was exactly asking, but he just felt like he had to know Gavin’s answer.  However, all the prince could do was stare back at him, his eyes wide and moving wildly as they searched Ryan’s dark blue iris’s, a slight red tint spreading and staining his cheeks.  
  
“Tell you what, Rye?” He asked, breathlessly, as the same fog seemed to seep through him as well.  
  
Ryan wanted to devour him.  
  
Gavin’s lips parted slightly, his eyes still wavering as they searched, filled with confusion and worry and something that looked a little like hope, and suddenly Ryan was moving forward.  
  
Cheers erupted around them, jerking them both harshly back into their surroundings.  Gavin let out a startled, undignified squawk, and Ryan nearly leaped off the bench, his hand darting to the empty space where his sword usually sat on his hip.    
  
A woman in a long, red velvet cloak, a billowing hood covering her face, climbed up on the stage.  She took a long bow, giving Ryan a chance to calm his nerves and catch his breath, while the crowd’s cheer grew in volume.    
  
Gavin was giving him confused pointed looks, but he did his best to keep his eyes on the stage.  The memory of what he had done, what he had _nearly_ done, tumbled around in his head, making his chest ache.  
  
“Rye,” Gavin whispered softly, trying to catch the others attention, ignoring the hooded woman on stage who was sliding the hood off to reveal a very familiar cascade of bright red hair. “What was-” he started, but Ryan cut him off.  
  
“Look,” he interjected quickly, pointing at the stage.  “It’s Meg.”  
  
Gavin looked up at the de-cloaked woman, and he seemed to promptly forget his and Ryan’s entire previous exchange.  He bounced up and down in his seat, waving at his friend and joining in on the cheering.  
  
Meg held out her hands, her intense gaze sweeping across the whole audience, and they all went silent (Gavin joining with them, to Ryan’s intense relief).  
  
“In the time of our tale,” she began, “there were no kingdoms.  Only small, sparse villages, with no leaders, but only extended families.  Lives were simple.  They were born, they loved, they toiled, and then they passed while never leaving their home. While inside the small villages, there was kindness in people’s heart’s, but still they felt nothing but fear for the outside world. When you’d only learned to trust those closest to you, strangers were no different from the monsters that ruled the forests.”  
  
There was movement behind her as actors dressed as creepers and shady looking men darted in and out of the prop trees only briefly, before disappearing again.     
  
“And in this state of fear, evil took hold.”  
  
A man in a black hooded cloak slid onto the stage, the monsters and bandits scattering out his way as he crossed past them.  Gavin let out a loud ‘Boo’ next to him, quickly followed by the rest of the audience. They jeered as the hooded man stalked ominously across the stage.  
  
Ryan chuckled, picking up his drink once more and settling back into his seat.  Gavin was fully immersed in the play now, and he could finally let himself relax, hoping the other completely forgot their moment from earlier.  
  
“He was a sorcerer, his name long forgotten, born in a time before memory. He had dedicated his life to become a master of potions, eventually finding their greatest power, immortality.  After eons, alone with nothing but his potions and the power they contained, he eventually went mad.”  
  
The sorcerer traveled to the front of the stage, throwing his arms out wide and letting out a loud cackling laugh. Ryan heard gasps throughout the audience and lifted his drink in front of his face to try and stifle his laughter.  
  
“He traveled from town to town wreaking havoc upon the inhabitants.  With his powers, he learned to control the sky and the clouds. He left their crops dead on the ground. He dried up their wells, and left nothing but stillborn calves in their mother’s stomachs.” The sound of people screaming and a woman sobbing loudly drifted out from behind the stage, startling people around Ryan.  
  
“He even took dominion over the monsters in the forest.”  
  
He lifted his hand out towards the audience in a grand gesture, and Ryan heard the audience gasp once more as a line of actors dressed as creepers sauntered from behind the audience, stomping through the openings between the benches and onto the stage. They surrounded the cloaked man, hissing and moving towards him. At a swipe of his hand, they all bowed in tandem shuffling to stand behind him.  
  
Actors with swords and bows stomped onto the stage, waving their weapons and yelling at the sorcerer.  
  
"There were some who stood up to the sorcerer.”  
  
The cloaked figure waved his hands once over the actors before they crumbled to the ground.    
  
"But none were successful."  
  
The man let out another evil laugh as he sauntered off the stage, the monsters following dutifully after him.  Meg moved to the center while the 'dead' villagers crawled off as quietly as possible until she was alone.  
  
“However, there was a man.”  A plain clothed man entered the stage, a wooden hoe slung over his shoulder, but the rest of his costume startled Ryan a bit. There was a large, square plaster box balanced on his shoulders, encasing his head, with a painted face and bright red painted eyes on the front.    
  
The crowd burst into applause, cheering and waving Herobrine dolls in the air.  Gavin joined them, holding his doll up as well, to Ryan’s amusement.  
  
“He was a simple farmer, who lived a simple life, and dreamed simple dreams,” Meg narrated, while the box headed man mimed tiling away at a field behind her.  “But everyone who knew him knew him as the kindest man they had ever met. His simple farm was on the outskirts of the village, far too close to the forest for most people to settle, but he had never feared the outside world as much as the others. He lived a happy life.”  
  
A woman screamed off stage, and nearly half the audience jumped in their seats.  Gavin gripped Ryan's arm in panic, and he was intensely aware of every second that his hand lingered.  
  
“Until the sorcerer attacked his village.”  
  
Stagehands wandered onto the left side of the stage, carrying tall poles with various pieces of red, yellow, and orange fabric that resembled flames.  Herobrine ran towards them, before holding his hands in front of himself, as if shielding himself from the heat, before falling to his knees with anguished cries.    
  
Ryan lifted his drink to his face to hide another chuckle.  He took another sip, raising his eyebrow innocently over his glass when Gavin shushed him.    
  
He really didn’t pay close attention to the play after that. Herobrine went from village to village spreading the word about the sorcerer forging alliances and bringing the people together, but all Ryan did was watch the emotions play across Gavin’s face. The way he frowned when the hero was distrusted or shunned by the villagers.  The way his eyes light up when the hero was praised for uniting the villages into a mighty kingdom. His huge grin when the hero’s true love accepted his hand in marriage.  
  
When Meg crowned him, “The First King of Achieva,” Gavin winced, looking down at the ground, before quickly turning his eyes to meet Ryan’s.    
  
Ryan quickly looked back at the stage.  
  
“After years of fighting,” Meg continued, standing alone on the stage, “the King grew weary of sending his men off to die for him.  So, in the dead of night, he slipped off from his castle to track down the sorcerer himself. He traveled for weeks, deep into the forests fighting monsters at every turn, until he finally found him.”  
  
A large wooden prop was wheeled on stage, the front painted like an old dilapidated cottage.  
  
“He ventured inside the cottage, finding potions lining every corner of the house, but no sorcerer.  He waited,” she narrated, while the actor mimed her every word behind her, “until eventually, the sorcerer returned.”  
  
The cloaked man burst through the door, and the hero pulled out his sword and challenged him to a duel. The sorcerer thrust his hand out, while the sound of thunder cracked out from behind the stage. Herobrine rolled across the stage, dodging the ‘spell’.  He continued to jump around, dodging the invisible attacks, while smoke filtered in from different sides of the stage from the ‘spells’.  
  
The sorcerer thrust a single hand out menacingly at Herobrine, and his sword flew from his hand as if jerked back with a string.  
  
“Without his sword,” Meg narrated as the hero looked around looked around wildly for something to defend himself, “Herobrine turned to the only weapon he could see.”  
  
Making a mad dash off the right side of the stage, he ducked his hand off into a group of stagehands who handed off a potion bottle to him. Letting out a primal scream, he chucked it through the air to crash at the feet of the sorcerer.  The sorcerer let out a cry of pain as smoke billowed around him blocking him from sight.    
  
Once the smoke had watered the eyes of the crowd, and a few of them had stopped their hoarse coughing as they breathed it in, it slowly began to fade. In its place, where had been a cloaked man, stood two men in a cow costume.  
  
Ryan choked on his drink, while the crowd leaped to their feet cheering for the hero. He coughed out the harsh ale, trying to catch his breath as he missed a good bit of Meg’s narration. When he finally looked up, he wished he hadn’t.  
  
The Herobrine actor was standing in front of a large prop of Portal, something Ryan had only seen drawings of, the men in the cow costume standing right beside him.    
  
“And with their truce made, Herobrine was able to seal the monsters behind the Portal.  However, to truly seal it, Herobrine would have to enter the portal himself, never to return.”  
  
The cow walked through the Portal first, and Ryan wanted to roll his eyes. Herobrine took a step forward, before pausing.  
  
“He did not want to do it. To leave behind his Queen and son, to leave behind the world he had loved.” He turned to the audience, his large square head and bright red eyes turning slowly to stare at all of them. “But his love for his people was too great.” The crowd watched in silence as the man stepped through the Portal and disappeared behind the curtain that hid the right side of the stage.  
  
“And so ends our tale,” Meg concluded to the sound of monstrous cheering.  
  
Gavin bugged him all the way out of amphitheater for his opinion, but Ryan kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t until Meg was able to break away from the rest of the acting crew to join them before Ryan felt like he could discuss the play without bursting into laughter.  
  
“What did you think?” Meg asked as soon as she reached them.  
  
“You were great,” he said honestly, letting Gavin gush over the rest of the spectacle that he personally believed should never have seen the light of day.  
  
It was on the way back to the tavern with his arm slung around Gavin’s shoulders, halfway through a loud gut busting laugh at something Meg said, that Ryan realized he’d gone and let himself get drunk. He was still sober enough to remember exactly all the reasons why he shouldn’t, but at the same time, he was having fun.    
  
Cheers erupted as soon as they re-entered the bar, Ryan pulling Gavin behind him in a protective stance before congratulators pushed them aside to converge on Meg.  
  
Gavin tugged on the stunned Ryan’s arm, pulling him out his daze, before pushing through the crowd to reach the bar. A grinning Jack placed two full pints down in front of them.  
  
“How did the play go?” he asked them.  
  
“Meg was great,” Ryan automatically repeated.    
  
Gavin grasped his drink hungrily, bringing it to his lips and taking full desperate gulps.  
  
Ryan took his almost absentmindedly, trying to find something to take his eyes off the pale skin of the prince’s long neck as it bobbed in and out from each deep swallow.  He took a tentative sip, choking as soon as he noticed Jack’s knowing smile.  His next drink was a generous swallow, ignoring Jack’s hearty laugh and Gavin’s concerned questions. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be the final part of the festival. I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, because I really enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> Drunk Ryan is fun to write.
> 
> The art is from the lovely [ludomoose](http://ludomoose.tumblr.com/post/119395641591/youre-so-weird-ryan-youre-weird-dont-make).


	9. The Herobrine Festival: Part Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The thrilling conclusion to the Hero brine festival. Hold on to your pants, ladies and gentlemen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter is long. I had more fun writing this chapter than anything else I've ever written. I recommend you listen to plenty of renaissance fair music while reading, because that's what I did while writing it.

Gavin immediately left his side as soon as Meg appeared to drag him into the crowd. Ryan congratulated Meg once again, before they disappeared, but immediately started commiserating with Jack as soon as they were gone.  

“Is it always that-” he tried to ask the bartender.

“Terrible?” Jack offered with a grin.

“Yes!”

“Yep.”

“I knew it,” Ryan said, slamming his drink down on the bar. “That idiot kept going on about it being history but it's a fucking kids bedtime story.”  

Jack laughed heartily. “That about sums it up. And they do the same one every year.”

“It was so stupid,” he groaned, before sputtering out a quick, “No offense to your traditions or anything.”

“No offense taken,” Jack reassured him. “If it weren’t for the buckets of gold I rack in during this thing, I would just pretend it didn’t exist.”

“I just can’t believe he got me into it. I even named the stupid cow,” he said, pointing at the doll strapped to his shoulder.  

Jack gave him a strange look, before quickly stifling a laugh.

“What?” Ryan asked quickly.

“Nothing,” he reassured him, a smile cracking on the edges of his lips.  

 _“What?_ ” he asked again, an edge to his voice this time.

“Who, um,” Jack began, his eyes quickly flashing over to where Gavin was standing. “Who told you that naming the cow was a tradition?”

“Why?” Ryan nearly growled.

“It’s just, that is a tradition. For little kids.”

“That little shit,” Ryan groaned, turning to glare over at the prince. “I’m going to strangle him.”

Ryan nearly missed it in favor of the murderous thoughts running through his head, but Jack let out an almost inaudible snort, and turned his head to mumble under his breath, “Sure, that’s what you wanna do to him.”

He felt his face immediately flush, filling in space not already lit up from the ale. “What was that?” he squeaked out, completely failing his attempt to sound casual.

“You heard me,” Jack told him firmly.

“Believe me, there is nothing in this world I want to do to that kid other than strangling him,” Ryan told him steadily, but he felt the tips of his ears starting to turn red as well.   

Jack smiled, smugly, but lifted his hand up in defeat gesture.

“Okay, okay, I believe you.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, nearly jumping out of his seat when Barb appeared suddenly beside Jack. The bartender let out a quiet, but clearly startled sound, and nearly dropped the glass he was holding.

“Oh really?” she asked Ryan, her tone nearly dripping with smugness.  She ignored, Jack’s, “Dammit, Barb,” her focus entirely on Ryan. “I guess that’s what I saw you trying to do to him, at the play, then?”

Ryan forgot how to breathe.

“What?” he finally choked out.

“It’s funny, though, because that’s the weirdest strangling technique I’ve ever seen,” she barreled on, Jack clearly confused, but each word sending spikes through Ryan’s chest. “I guess you would need to be so close, though, but it was a little weird how you were both staring into each other’s eyes.”

“You were at the play?” Ryan whispered quietly, though it was drowned out by Jack’s confused, “What?”

“Though I don’t what you’d need your lips for-” Jack let out a loud, honest-to-god gasp, and Barb collapsed into giggles.  

“That did not happen!” Ryan nearly screamed, but they both ignored him.

“Are you serious?” Jack asked her.

“It was like a show within a show if you know what I mean,” she continued.

“There was no lip touching involved at all!” Ryan probably a little too loudly, and immediately regretted it as they both turned to look at him with matching smirks.

“Oh?” Jack asked with faux innocence. “But you were staring into each other’s eyes?”

Ryan stuttered out the beginning of a denial, but when Jack and Barb burst out laughing, he just sighed and took another drink to calm himself.  

“It wasn’t like that,” he finally mumbled out lamely.

“I’m sure,” Jack told him teasingly.

Barb took a breath to continue her teasing before she turned towards the door.

“Oh!” She slapped Jack lightly on the arm and nodded her head towards the entrance of the tavern. “On a similar note.”

Ryan followed her gaze, eyeing the group of people crowded around the entrance. He turned back and was startled to see Jack’s face turning blood red.

“What?” he asked around an amused chuckle.

“The brown haired girl,” Barb told him, trying to discreetly point.  

Ryan noticed her now, a very pretty girl with dark brown hair.  “Oh,” he said slyly, giving Jack a sideways look. The bartender ignored him, cleaning another glass silently, but he didn’t try to deny anything.  

“Her name’s Cati and Jack is in looove.”

“Shut up Barb,” he grumbled.

“So, are you two,” Ryan started, waving his hair vaguely in the air.  Jack flushed an even darker red, and Barb snorted.

“He’s never even talked to her.”

“That’s not true!” Jack argued.

“That wasn’t asking her what she wanted to drink,” Barb immediately shot back.

Jack spluttered momentarily, before looking back down at his clean glass that he was still running a cloth over.

“Aw man, that’s rough,” Ryan told him, his sympathetic tone belied by the mean smirk quirking at his lips.

“To hell with both of you,” Jack grumbled, finally setting the glass down. His eyes flickered to Cati, who had just slid into a booth with another girl. “I’m going to go see what they want to drink.”

“Yeah, that’s what you want to do to her,” Ryan told him, beyond smug that he got to repeat Jack’s dig back at him.

“S-shut up!” he stuttered out, making his way out from behind the bar.

“That’s the spirit!” Barb shouted at his retreating back. “Maybe, this time, you can ask her about the weather!”

Ryan was still laughing when a sudden swell of music silenced them both.  A group of musicians, whom Ryan had seen standing on a street corner near the tavern earlier, were filtering in slowly through the entrance.  They bowed as the patrons greeted them with cheers, (Barb yelling, “Sweet” right next to him) and he watched as the crow began to stand and push away the majority of the tables nearest the bar to clear out an open space.  The performers stood off to the side, as a few of the patrons crowded into the cleared space.  

They filtered into two lines, separated by the sexes, facing the other as the music slowed down in tempo.  He was slightly startled to see a grinning Gavin, bowing to Meg across from him.  He smiled as she gave a deep curtsy in tandem with the women beside her.

The prince in disguise held out his hand that Meg immediately grasped, their move mirrored multiple times around them by the other couples, before beginning the dance.  

Barb cheered loudly beside him, joined by the patrons watching in amusement, as the couples moved elegantly in the choreographed dance.  

Ryan turned the rest of the way around in his chair, so he could comfortably watch the dance and sip at his drink.  He could feel the weight of Barb’s teasing look on his back but he ignored her.

He had been a child when he had danced last, having very few chances since then.  And most of those memories were long buried behind thoughts he did his best to forget.  The dance wasn’t like the practiced waltz’s he had seen before, but the dancer’s smiles and laughter gave it it’s own charm. The partners moved in shorter steps, staying close but out of arm’s reach, at some points clasping hands, before spinning away from each other once again.  

Gavin struggled at first, obviously as unfamiliar with the dance as Ryan was, while Meg teased him mercilessly. Once he seemed to catch onto the pattern, Ryan could watch him slowly move more confidently.  A smug grin dug into the sides of his cheeks, sliding around Meg with far more grace than Ryan had ever seen him display before.

He only looked away when Jack returned, his eyes stuck on the floor. Two sets of curious eyes followed his every moment, but he casually ignored them, while filling up two empty glasses from a barrel behind the bar.

“Well?” Barb finally asked.

“Well, what?” Jack asked casually but still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Did you talk to her?”

Jack seemed to ignore her at first, still pouring the drinks in silence, before his shoulders slumped forward. “It was a train wreck.”

Barb groaned. “What happened?”

He sat the drinks down on the bar, before sliding his face into his hand.  “I just sort of panicked and asked what she thought of the play.” Barb groaned again. “And then I realized halfway through that I didn’t like the play at all and hadn’t seen it in twenty years so I don’t even know why I asked that, and then I just completely missed what she said.  So then I started telling a story about a cow I had when I was a kid, but they were both just looking at me like I was mad, so I forgot what the story was halfway through so I stopped and ended up just sort of,” he paused as he noticed Ryan biting on his hand to stop from laughing, and Barb was covering the lower half of her face with her hand, but her wide eyes gave away how amused she was, “staring at them,” he finished lamely.

He gave a sad sigh, rolling his eyes when they both finally burst out laughing.

“Thanks, guys, that means a lot.”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, Jack,” Barb was able to get out around her attempts at smothering her laughter. Ryan made no such attempt, his arm wrapped around his waist as he laughed deep from his gut.

“Whatever. Here,” he said, handing the full glasses to Barb.

“Oh no,” she told him. “You take it to her and try again.”

“Did you not just hear what I said?” he asked incredulously, raising his voice over Ryan’s deep chuckling beside them.

Barb refused to relent, moving down the bar to help some customers that had wandered up. Jack groaned as he watched her scamper away.

“Hey man,” Ryan finally spoke up, “at worst, she thinks you have a weird thing for cows.”

“At worst??” Jack practically screamed at him, but he finally did start making his way out from behind the bar, shuffling as slowly as he could towards Cati and her friend.

He had finally reached them when Barb was suddenly back, leaning over the bar beside Ryan, both of them watching his approach intently. “Bless his heart,” Barb said sincerely, as they watched him stumble over his words, while the two girls looked on with smothered amusement.  “This is painful to watch,” she said, while never taking her eyes off her boss.

“Bless his heart,” Barb said sincerely, as they watched him stumble over his words, while the two girls looked on with smothered amusement.  “This is painful to watch,” she said, while never taking her eyes off her boss.

A sudden bout of clapping caught Ryan’s ears. He turned just in time to see Gavin hoisting Meg into the air. The red-haired doctor threw her arms out, and her head back in a dramatic flair. He finally slid her back to the ground to another round of cheering and clapping, before they exited the makeshift dance floor.  Other couples began to disperse as well, others filing in their empty spots as the band looked ready to begin another song.

Ryan’s head quickly jerked to meet Barb’s gaze, startling her slightly.

“I have an idea.”  He sat his drink down and slid down from his stool. Ignoring her confused look he sauntered over to Jack. He tried not to shake his head when he heard the man stuttering through a question about the weather, and slid his arm familiarly across Jack’s shoulders.

“Hey, ladies,” he said, casually interrupting Jack in the middle of his sentence.  They both echoed a friendly, ‘hello’ at him.  He ignored the bartender’s confused glance to wave at the both of them.

“My friend Jack here has been working hard all day, and I’ve been trying to get him to take a break. You guys wouldn’t help me out would you?”

“Of course,” Cati’s friend agreed immediately, smirking up at him like she knew exactly what was about to happen.  

Jack stuttered out something about the bar, still looking at Ryan in shock.

“Barb’s got it, don’t worry about it,” he told him smugly, patting the bearded man on the shoulder.  

“What can we do to help?” asked a cheerful, accented voice, and Ryan turned to look at the voice’s owned. Cati’s eyes were kind, and her accent reminded him of the Prince’s.  He couldn’t help but smile back.

“Well, he’s always boasting about what a great dancer he is-” Ryan started slyly.

“That’s not true,” Jack tried to interrupt, but Ryan talked right over him.

“But I’ve never actually seen him in action.  I mean, I’ve heard the stories of him gliding across the floor-”

“What are you talking about-”

“They say he’s like an elegant swan-”

“What the fuck, Ryan-”

Ryan finally stopped when he heard the two girls giggling at the two of them.

“Well,” Cati’s friend said while standing up, “I have to see that.”  However, she held her hand out towards Ryan.  His arm slipped from Jack’s shoulder to grasp her hand in his.  

“Arryn,” she told him with a smile.

“Ryan,” he said, kissing her hand lightly, before tugging her gently towards the dance floor, leaving Jack and Cati by themselves.  

“You are an evil genius,” Arryn whispered to him as soon as they far enough away from the other two.

“Thank you,” Ryan said with a chuckle.

“I’ve been watching him stumble around her for months, it’s exhausting.”

“I hear you. I’ve only watched it for a few minutes, and I couldn’t stand it anymore,” he whispered back at her, turning his head over her shoulder to watch as the bartender finally reached his hand out towards the auburn haired girl.

When she took his hand, Ryan heard Arryn’s small hiss of, “Yes,” and they both couldn't hold back their laughter.  

“Now I do have to warn you,” Ryan told her solemnly, taking his place in the line facing her. “I am going to be pretty terrible at this.”

She laughed kindly. “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she said, but Ryan just shook his head gravely, sending her laughing again.

Jack and Cati quickly joined them, the bartender’s shoulder jarring into Ryan’s suddenly, accompanied by a weighty glower.  He only smiled, before the music started immediately, signaling the beginning of the dance.  It was a different song than before, he noted with a twinge of regret.  Hopefully, he could pick up the steps as quickly as Gavin had.  

Ryan bowed with ease, the only part of the dance he was sure of, and smiled at Arryn’s graceful curtsy. Watching Jack carefully out of the corner of his eye, he moved forward slowly, turning left or right in sync with the other.

He only stumbled once, nearly taking both him and the wildly dancing man beside him to the ground.  The other man kept them both standing, apparently stronger than his gangly looking limbs and erratic movements suggested.  An embarrassed flush covered his face as he thanked the man, but his own chuckling joining those around him, and immediately started back into the rhythm.

It was in the middle of twirling Arryn around himself that he noticed Gavin watching him.  The prince was leaning against the bar, his eyes boring into Ryan’s so fiercely that he nearly stumbled forward.  He quickly looked away, trying to keep his attention on the girl, but he could still feel the gaze on him.  

He only lasted a few more steps, before he found himself looking back at the prince.  The intense look was still there, grinning smugly at him when he noticed Ryan watching him back.  He winked.  

Ryan looked away again, keeping his eyes on Arryn for the rest of the dance.

He was handing Arryn’s hand over to the wildly dancing man beside him, who had been staring adoringly at her for most of the dance before he got the nerve to look back at where Gavin was standing.

But he was gone.

It only took a quick second for his eyes to scan the room before he only confirmed what his first instinct had been. Ryan’s heart was busting out a steady rhythm from his chest and all the way through his head, as he took off up the stairs.  Maybe he was in their room. He had to be.

He only paused for a heartbeat, as he took in their empty room, before grabbing his sword and bow from the stand where he’d left them.  

Here, he’d been calling the prince an idiot this whole time, but the man had completely outwitted him in every way possible. He had smiled and laughed at his captor, bombarding him constantly with an innocent and clueless display. Until he’d smoothed down every part of what should have been Ryan’s very real concerns over the man, until he’d done what he had wanted, what any sane person would want, to do from the very beginning.

He had escaped.

As silently as possible he slid back down the stairs, hoping no one would notice him now loaded down with weaponry. Luckily, most of the tavern’s occupants were too engrossed in the celebration to notice, Jack still twirling Cati around on the floor with easy smiles on both their faces.  The boisterous voices drowned out his heavy footsteps and the clanking of his sword and slunk behind the bar.  He hurried behind Barb, who was keeping one eye on the customer she was serving and one eye on her boss.  Kerry didn’t even turn around when he rushed past him and out the back door.

He stopped just outside the door, quickly looking around. To his right was the stable, plenty of horses haphazardly strapped to poles around the walls, most of them already saddled.  It would only be too easy to quickly unrope one of them and take off into the night, and he didn’t doubt that had been the prince’s first move.  

And to the left-

“Hello.”

\- was Gavin.

Ryan let out a deep breath, staring silently at the younger man leaning against the wall of the tavern, giving him an awkward smile.

“I-” he started, coughing suddenly when he realized he didn’t quite know what he was going to say. He felt the tightness in his chest slowly unclench itself, his muscles un-tensing.

“I thought you’d ran,” he finally slipped out, his grip loosening on the hilt of his sword, and an embarrassed grin trying to make it’s way to his face.

“That was the plan,” the prince told him casually, and Ryan’s heart slammed back in his chest

“What?”

“That was the plan,” he repeated, a sarcastic tint to his words this time. “Didn’t make it very far.”

Ryan didn’t say anything for a moment, the whiplash of emotions stunting his reactions.  The current cool demeanor of his captee was unlike anything he’d seen the man display before, and it was keeping his anger at bay for the moment.

“The whole time?” he asked, sounding far calmer than he felt.

“Pretty much, yeah.” When Ryan didn’t respond, he continued on.  “Made you think I was too stupid to take off, got you all bev’ed up, waited until you were good and distracted-”

He only stopped when he saw Ryan moving towards him.  The older man gripped his arm, only stopping short of tight enough to leave a bruise.  Gavin startled forward, clearly unexpecting the sudden, aggressiveness of his captor.  He flinched, preparing for the worst.  

“Why didn’t you?” Ryan calmly asked.

Gavin wanted to relax, realizing he probably wasn’t going to get hit, but aware that he was trapped between the wall and the much larger man.

“I don’t know,” he said, meeting Ryan’s cool stare head on.  “There’s just,” he started, his voice turning to a hoarse whisper, weighed down by his honest confusion, “something about you.”

Ryan’s grip on his forearm tightened for a second, but Gavin continued on.

“I can’t figure you out.  I thought you were just a stupid, dick like all the others, and you just killed those guys like nothing, but then you act like such a,” he paused, “such a dork!  How am I supposed to mesh those two things together?  How can you threaten to break somebody's legs and then carry them miles through the forest because they twisted their ankle and give them a night of freedom-”

“I’m not a good man,” Ryan interrupted gruffly, his calm starting to slip.

Gavin snorted. “I didn’t say you were. Nobody is really all good, we’re just more one way or the other. But you just seem sort of, stuck in the middle," he trailed off.

Something unraveled in Ryan's chest, grasping tight in his throat as it tried to claw it's way free.

"And I know I needed to get on a horse and ride straight back to the castle, but as soon as I stepped outside all I could think,” his lips tilted up in a sad parody of the blinding smile that had always captivated Ryan, “was that I wanted to know everything about you.”

Ryan could only stare, silence smothering over the both of them, dragging on for forever and lasting for only a few breaths at the same time.  A whispered, “I can’t figure you out,” and, “his eyes,”  battled against the sound his heart beating out his chest, and he couldn’t tear himself away from the prince’s bright, green eyes, and soft looking lips.

Gavin had been playing him the whole time to some extent, that much was clear to Ryan now. He didn't know how much of the prince's innocent smile and kind eyes was an act, but he was sure the prince was a kind person at heart. Just, a bit more intelligent and more manipulative then Ryan had obviously given him credit for. It should have made him hate the other man. He should've finally been able to snuff out the feelings that had been trying to dig their way into his heart since he first saw him smile.  But for some reason, he just wanted him even more.  

“What you said-,” Ryan finally began, his gruff tone shattering the calm facade entirely, “What you said to Meg.  Was that all part of your plan too? Did you know I was outside?”

Gavin’s surprised look was all he needed to finally break.  He barely stuttered out a, “What are you talking about-,” before Ryan was crushing their lips together.

It didn’t immediately feel right, their lips slanting together at an awkward angle, but he couldn’t ignore the immediate relief that spread over him.  He’d thrown away all reason, his constant companion that had kept him alive through some rough times, and gone for something he’d been denying himself for a little too long.  It didn’t feel necessarily right or wrong kissing the other man, his captee, a crowned prince, but it definitely felt good. His other hand grasped at the prince’s arm, keeping himself steady as Gavin gasped against his lips.  He took the chance to slip their lips together into a better position before he thoroughly claimed the prince’s now open mouth.

The prince loosely grasped at the front of his tunic, his grip only tightening when Ryan broke the kiss to catch his breath.  

Gavin’s face was flushed a pretty red, his pupils wide and blown out, but Ryan couldn’t tear his gaze away from his plumped up lips, nearly bruised from the intense kiss.  The prince tugged on his shirt, trying to pull him closer. “Please Rye,” he whispered.

“God damn you,” Ryan growled and kissed him again running his hands down Gavin’s slim shoulders to clamp onto his hips.  Gavin moaned into his mouth, and Ryan could feel it in his chest as he slammed their bodies together.   

The prince let out a whine when he felt the hard tent in Ryan’s pants against his hip, bucking up instantly against him, causing them both to groan into the kiss.  

There were a million things Ryan suddenly wanted to say to the prince.  Rough, brutal things like what he wanted to do to the other man.  How he wanted to take him against the wall, or what he would look like naked and sprawled out below him on the grass, the sounds of the tavern washing over them as he thrust into him over and over again.  

But there were softer things he wanted him to know as well.  That his eyes were the same color green as the grass he played in as a child, that his small lithe body fits perfectly against Ryan’s broader build. That his smile had been slowly breaking Ryan apart from the inside.

“God damn you,” he repeated instead, whispering it this time against the other's lips as they both caught their breath. Any other words still caught in his throat.

“I know,” Gavin whispered back at him, threading his hands up Ryan’s face and into his hair, before clashing their lips together again.  

“Oh my God!” squealed a voice from the doorway.

Ryan immediately jumped back as if he’d been struck, leaving a flustered Gavin to collapse against the wall in his haste to separate them  His gut sank when he saw Meg’s bright eyes and Barb’s smug grin.

“I told you I saw him sneaking out here,” Barb said, nudging Meg who was giggling into her hand.  

“Guys,” Gavin whined, crossing his arms and pouting at the two women.  The silly, innocent facade slipped back on so quickly that Ryan's head spun.

“Sorry,” Barb replied, sounding anything but, “didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“I’m so sorry!” Meg said, though, sounding genuinely apologetic. “But you need to come back inside.”

“What? Why?” Gavin asked, though he immediately started towards the girls.

“There’s a Knight here, from the capital.  They’re gathering everybody out on the street,” Meg told them brightly.

Gavin froze.

“I think they’re looking for someone,” Barb told them excitedly, but they barely heard her.

Ryan’s hand immediately shot out to grasp Gavin’s wrist, holding him tightly as they both stared at the other.  Emotions flickered across the prince’s face quickly, too quickly for Ryan to catch. Gavin quickly turned towards the women, before looking back at Ryan, fear, and concern seeping out from the panic in his eye's and the tense lines in his cheeks.

He knew what he needed to do. His sword should have already been out, slicing the two girls through before they could even make a sound.  Knocking Gavin out and throwing him over a horse before letting them both disappear deep into the darkness of the forest.  

Yet, he hadn’t moved.  Images of Meg’s kind smile and Barb’s infectious laugh pounded against his skull, and he couldn’t look away from Gavin’s terrified eyes.  Every survival instinct in his body was screaming at him to move, to do something, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of the smaller man’s body against his, blown out pupils staring up at him, his hot breath against his lips.

With every beat of silence that stretched between them, the fear seemed to leave Gavin’s face, melting into something less clear.

“Guys?”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Ryan told them suddenly, only keeping his calm tone through years of practice, and never breaking eye contact with the prince.  Gavin's eyes widened slightly but made no other movement.

Meg giggled again, misinterpreting the sudden intense air between the for something more romantic, and dragged Barb inside.  “Of course!”

Ryan only looked away from the other man when they women were gone, his eyes shooting quickly over towards the stable, then back to the prince.

“Let’s go,” he said, squeezing Gavin’s wrist.

Gavin stared blankly up at him, his expression giving nothing about what he was feeling away before he slowly nodded.  

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I hope you guys like this. I came very close to cutting this chapter off where Gavin dissapears, but I really wanted to go ahead and give you guys the kiss. 
> 
> I hope the dancing wasn't too terrible. 
> 
> I'm at sailorbryant.tumblr.com if you want to stop by and say hi!


	10. The Way It Has To Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan experiences that moment where you move from drunk to hungover while awake, and I make myself sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this update has taken so long, but it's finally here now. Yay! Don't hate me too much.
> 
> The gorgeous art is from the lovely and talented [ludomoose](http://ludomoose.tumblr.com/post/119972579767/a-wip-of-more-fanart-for-sailorbryants-fic-no). Please drop by and tell her how wonderful she is!

They rode in silence. Gavin started off sitting as far back as possible on the saddle, his hands grasping the ridged sides with all his might so that he wasn’t touching Ryan.  Whether it was to give Ryan space to work out his feelings, or his own need for solitude, he didn’t know.  Though every bump or harsh jostling from the galloping of the horse had them lightly clashing together, he did his best to ignore it.

On a particularly rough jolt, as the horse had to nearly leap to avoid a fallen branch, the prince crashed forward against his back.  After a moment of tense silence, he stayed. Slowly, as if waiting for admonishment, his hands slid up to grip at the sides of Ryan’s tunic.  Another tense beat past, the sound of hoof beats pounding in their ears before Gavin laid his head against his shoulder.

Ryan tried to shrug the younger man off him, but the prince held tight until Ryan finally stopped struggling, and tried not to imagine the smug grin that had to be on the younger man’s face right then.

The whole situation was quickly spiraling out of his control.

They had only a sliver of the moon left to light their path through the dense forest. It helped keep them hidden from any prying eyes, but it was also keeping the dangerous forest floor as equally hidden from Ryan’s eyes.  He was constantly slowing the horse down to watch for any fallen branches or terrain changes, before pushing him into quick bursts in an attempt to cover as much ground as possible.

He didn’t know how long it would take before Gavin’s description would be given to the tavern crew, or how long it would take before the pieces fell together, but he would bet it wouldn’t be long.  He didn’t even know if that was why the Knight was in town.  If Caleb had done his job correctly, the Knights should be heading in the opposite direction of them.

Still, he couldn’t assume anything but the worst. His head was throbbing from the alcohol finally weaning itself from his system, and the lack of sleep was leaving his senses dull.  More than once he brought the horse to a halt because he didn’t trust himself to separate a battalion worth of hoof beats from the ones right below him.

Yet, in between the spindles of fear that were gripping his chest, and the twinges of pain and exhaustion caused from his rapidly forming hangover, he still found moments to solely concentrate on the prince. The warmth from the chest pressing against him, his slow breaths running across Ryan’s neck and sending goosebumps over his arms. The memory of their brief kiss, and how far they could have gone, how far he would have taken it if they hadn’t been interrupted.  

It was like the kiss had opened up a floodgate in his mind.  He had found the other man attractive, of course, and the want had been there edging at the corner of his mind since their night spent under the tree.  Now, however, he could picture it so clearly it was threatening to consume him. Images of the younger man pressed against him, (or above him or beneath him-) his naked chest slick against his own bombarded him.

Finding out about the prince’s surprising dual nature should have hardened him against such thoughts, he supposed, but they only seemed to add fuel to the fire. Images of the innocent smile that had entranced him flickered against the new image of his smug grin, the idea of both of them colliding and only succeeding in enticing him even more.

The horse let out a whine, jerking them sharply as Ryan had nearly led them to a tree. He cursed under his breath, waiting for a comment from the prince at his absentmindedness.

A soft snore was the only reply he received.

He wanted to be angry at the prince.  Ryan’s heart was beating so fast he was having difficulty catching his breath, but Gavin had felt comfortable enough to pass out draped across his back.

Still, it was preferable to having to speak about, well, everything that had happened.  It was probably better to let him sleep.

He needed a plan, but exhaustion was slowly seeping his cognitive abilities away.  He was running entirely on instinct at this point, unable to plan for any future besides getting them as far away from the small village, and the Knight, as soon as possible.  

Just when he was reaching the end of his ability to continue, the trees suddenly began to thin out as the forest opened up into a huge, open field. There were rows and rows of various crops covering the open area seated in front of a small farmhouse.  Nestled in the far back of the valley, far from the house, was a large barn.  Ryan sighed in relief and led them as silently as possible through the tree line to loop around to place the barn between himself and the house.  

His head was throbbing now, and he felt on the verge of collapsing.  This was why he didn’t drink, he reminded himself grumpily.  He slid off the saddle, being careful to steady the sleeping prince to a stable position, before shaking him awake.

Gavin murmured sleepily at him, before climbing off the horse with Ryan’s assistance.  

Ryan shushed him gently, propping him up against the wall of the barn, unable to stop from rolling his eyes as the prince slumped against it.  He turned away to tie their horse up to a sturdy looking trough.  He ran his hand across the horses’ long nose, whispering soft words of encouragement in its ears, before slowly trudging back to retrieve his barely awake companion.

“Almost there,” he whispered gently at the prince, as they both stumbled haphazardly through the barn.  Gavin immediately headed towards a stack of hay in the corner away from the horse stables and collapsed face first on the nearest bundle. Ryan sighed, taking a moment to rearrange the hay to give them a modicum of cover from the entrance, before following after him.

Ryan nearly groaned in relief as he finally allowed his weary limbs to rest against the bundle of hay.  Nothing could beat a real bed, but it was definitely better than just the hard ground.  Though, his hangover guaranteed he’d regret it in the morning.

It would have to fight for top billing with his multitude of other regrets.

But no, he would just have to deal with that in the morning. For now, he just wanted to sleep.

With the last of his strength, he slid his sword from its sheath and laid it between the prince and him, his hand tight on the hilt. Better safe than sorry.

If he fell asleep staring unashamedly at Gavin’s open, sleeping face then that was no one’s business but his.

Ryan woke the next morning in stages.  There was the first harsh sign of reality as he burst into a harsh cough, his unbearably parched throat finally letting itself be known. He pushed through, his head throbbing with each jerk of his body before he finally settled back into a muddled fog.  A few minutes later his eyes slowly tried to open, before slamming immediately shut, the sudden and bright light blinding him.  He groaned, rolling over slightly to hide his face in his arms.

He heard a soft laugh to his right and turned to face the offending sound.

The prince was propped up on his side, looking far more rested and relaxed than Ryan felt he had a right to be. His fond smile slid into a sure smirk as his eyes took in his captor’s obviously rough appearance.

“Bit of a lightweight, aren’t ya?”

“Shut up,” he mumbled.

Gavin giggled, his eyes crinkling and lips twitching into an amused grin.

Ryan shut his eyes again to block him out.  He briefly tried to blame it on the sunlight filtering in through the cracks in the shingled roof, but it wasn’t worth it.  Memories of the previous night, dull when he first woke, began to intensify as he slowly became more and more awake.  He’d given himself an out last night, leaving his future plans to his future self when he drug them into the barn and succinctly past out.

If the prince was any sort of normal person he would have been halfway back to Achieva before Ryan had drug himself to a somewhat conscious state. Yet, here he was, greeting him with a teasing smile like an old friend (or a lover).

That alone should have made Ryan’s decision for him.

Still, there was more to his decision than a pretty smile and the pounding of his heart.  There was Caleb, his partner, who was probably rotting in a jail cell at the moment for all Ryan knew.  The prince’s return would lose Burnie any leverage he might have to get the man back.  Not to mention leaving his own life nearly forfeit if he entered either of the two kingdoms again.  He couldn’t handle another country with a death warrant out for him.

But most importantly, Ryan had given Burnie his word.  

And while his name, and his word along with it, had long ago lost any meaning to others, he still couldn’t bring himself to throw it away easily. Not when he was so close.

When he finally found the strength to open his eyes again, the prince was no longer smiling but giving him a considering look.  

“Get up, idiot,” Ryan huffed, pushing off the hay bale and ignoring the sluggishness of his own body. Gavin pouted, but Ryan ignored him, sheathing his sword.  He took a deep breath, blamed the pounding in his head on the alcohol, and looked towards the doors.  “We still have a few days ride to the border.”

There was a tense silence while Ryan dusted himself off, and pretending that he wasn’t avoiding looking the other man in the eye.

“To Roosteria?” Gavin whispered.

“Of course,” Ryan quipped, his voice unnaturally steady, and he started towards the doors.  He didn’t look back to see if the prince was following him, striding forward as if nothing was amiss. While slowly opening the door, his eyes darting across the open field leading to the tree line they’d burst forth from the night before.  Luckily, the owners of the barn seemed to be having a lazy morning. There were signs of life from the house, but the yard was empty.  

His eyes flickered back over to the prince, and he slowly shut the door when he realized that Gavin still hadn’t moved.  He was staring intently at the ground, multitudes of expressions crossing his face before he finally settled on determined, lifting his eyes to meet Ryan’s.

Ryan tried to look away, but he was frozen.

“Can I be honest with you, Ryan?”

“I’d prefer if you weren’t,” Ryan blurted out in an almost desperate breath, but it only seemed to spur Gavin on.  

“I don’t want to go back to Achieva.”

“What?” he hissed, confusion running over him like a physical blow.

“I mean, I don’t want to be Burnie’s captive,” Gavin quickly explained, “but I don’t  want to go back either. I love Geoff and Griffon, and I have friends in the castle but, I-” he choked for a second, before his next words burst forth, like he was freeing them from a tightly bound cage, “I-I don’t want to be a prince. Or a King! I don’t want to rule, to have people’s lives depending on me. I never did!”

Ryan looked at him helplessly. He wasn’t sure, but with the way, the words were tumbling out of the prince’s mouth like a buried confession, he was sure that Gavin hadn’t told anyone else this before.

“I was so happy when Geoff found me, and I don’t want to disappoint him, but he’s such a good King and I know I could never be like that.  And I definitely don’t want to be locked away in that castle for the rest of my life like a spoiled little kid.  I want to travel, and meet new people, and just live like everybody else.”  He finally broke his gaze to look down at the ground, overcome with sheepishness at his own words.

“Getting to be around Meg and the others was the most fun I can remember having in a long time,” Gavin continued, “and I don’t want to never have that again.”

Ryan tried to remind himself of his newly learned knowledge the Gavin was quite capable of manipulating his captor. He thought back to their first night huddled against a tree while the prince’s painful childhood story tumbled out of his lips, and Ryan had relented giving the prince the information he had wanted.  

Still, even with the worrying thought that the prince knew how to play him like a fiddle running through his head, he couldn’t help the words that spilled out.

“I can’t break my word to Burnie.”

Gavin looked up at him in surprise, mainly at the heartbreak in Ryan’s voice, before the words sunk in and he quickly looked away.

“No-I, listen,” Ryan started, stumbling over his own words, while Gavin stared at him in confusion.  He couldn’t believe he was telling Gavin this, but if the prince was going to gift him with the truth he might as well do the same.

“My father-” he started again, grimacing at sharp tendrils of pain that ripped through at even the word, but he pushed through digging up the courage that he knew he had to possess. “My father did some terrible things. Terrible, awful things. Ruined our family name for good.” Ryan knew it was truly an understatement for what had really happened, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell the full truth, yet. “So bad I can never return home, or I’d end up with my head cut off in the name of his crimes.”

“Rye-bread,” Gavin whispered.

“But, Burnie didn’t just promise me gold,” Ryan barreled on, as he slowly regained his confidence. Telling his story seemed to remind him of exactly who he was and how he’d been before he’d started the job. “He promised me a title and land. I could start a new, give honor back to our name.” He remembered why he had to complete it.

Gavin looked heartbroken, and Ryan didn’t doubt the sincerity of it, but he found himself hardening inside. He took the way he felt when Gavin smiled at him or the memory of the prince's lips, and he buried them inside.  They slid in place next to the memories of his father's insane laugh, and his mother's haunted eyes, and he closed himself off. He brought himself to full height, remembering the way Gavin had been frightened of him before that night in the woods, and hoping he could remind the prince exactly what he was capable of.

“So, I’m sorry, but I have to do this,” he finished, adding, “your highness,” to the end of his speech like the final nail in the coffin, and causing Gavin to flinch.

Ryan strode purposefully over to their stolen horse, untying his lead and leading him over to the door and slowly opening it again.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Gavin stared at the floor in silence for only a second, before he slowly stood up, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. “Okay.”

Good, Ryan thought to himself, mounting the horse, and waiting for Gavin to follow suite. This was the way it had to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh crap, am I writing angst? Is that what is happening? Oh dear, how did this come about. Sorry the chapter's a bit short, but it needed to come out. Hope you guys enjoyed the little peek into Ryan's past!
> 
> (I still cannot believe someone drew art for this story!! Ahhhhh!!)


	11. This Isn't A Story Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this and the next chapter are going to be from Gav's POV. I hope it's not too jarring, but after that it will go back to Ryan's. I just thought it was time to get a look into Gavin's head.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Also, special thanks to @whalehuntingboyfriends for helping me out on this chapter!
> 
> Also, also, ludomoose did some even more amazing art for Chapter 10! Check it out [here](http://ludomoose.tumblr.com/post/119972579767/a-wip-of-more-fanart-for-sailorbryants-fic-no) and tell her how amazing it is!!

Gavin had always loved riding. It was something he couldn’t imagine getting to do before Geoff brought him back, and suddenly it was available to him whenever he wanted.  Geoff had teased him mercilessly through his lessons, giggling at each of Gavin’s numerous mistakes, but still patient and supportive whenever he started to give up.  Soon, he was spending every evening possible on horseback, Geoff and Griffon flanking him on either side, covering every inch of the sprawling lands that surrounded the Kingdom with a legion of guards following behind.  

A few times, Geoff had startled him awake in the dead of night, sneaking him down to the stables, and sprinting them both of on a long ride without the burden of the guards. They would spend the night talking about every little thing that popped into their heads, their hopes and fears, Gavin’s past and Geoff’s regrets.  Only returning to the castle well after dawn. Gavin’s bodyguard, and friend, would meet them at the gate, screaming himself hoarse in their faces, while Geoff would only laugh.

(“But Michael,” Gavin whined. “It was Geoffrey's idea.”

“But Michael,” Geoff mocked, pulling an offended squawk from Gavin, and further noises of rage from Michael.

“DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE WHOSE IDEA IT WAS? You two fucking geniuses are smart enough to avoid every damn guard in the place, but neither of you can think to LEAVE A FUCKING NOTE!”

Gavin had the decency to look ashamed, while Geoff just shrugged. “Gotta keep you on your toes, Mikey.”)

Those were his favorite nights.

His current riding experience, however, was anything but enjoyable.  Ryan was putting off a brutal ‘do not touch’ air, while Gavin tried to acquiesce by sitting as far back on the saddle as was physically possible. Not that he particularly wanted to touch his captor at the moment -even with the tendrils of a fuzzy memory reminding him how good that broad, sturdy back actually felt.

To say he was disappointed in Ryan was an understatement.  From the moment the man had given one of his questions some serious consideration, Gavin had been intrigued.  He’d never met anyone who would meet his inanity toe to toe like that, and despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn’t get enough of it. When he’d quietly confessed his name like it pained him to do so, he’d managed to stuff down, he’d tried to quell any feelings that might have started to grow and began to form a plan to charm himself to freedom.

But Ryan was unlike anyone he’d ever met.  One minute, cold as ice, and standing above him covered in blood, his blue eyes going darker than the night sky behind him. The next, carrying an injured Gavin like a babe through the forest.  He’d been unable to not notice the embarrassed smiles Ryan would send Jack and Meg’s way or the way his blue eyes went soft while handing that excited child his leftover knives.  The desire in his eyes as he stared at Gavin’s lips before their aborted kiss.

But when he’d seen him twirling awkwardly around on the dance floor, (laughing, smiling, relaxed), he’d wondered if this was what love felt like.

He’d fled through the back door, his escape plans an afterthought to distract him from that fleeting thought.  Attraction was one thing - it would be silly to pretend that Ryan wasn’t simply gorgeous-, but a crush was foolishness, and love was insane.  He wasn’t that stupid.

That was what he told himself over and over again, while he stood outside the tavern wasting precious seconds, until his decision to flee had been stolen from him when Ryan had burst through the door.

When Ryan had kissed him, he wondered if it had ever been a decision at all.  

Gavin shook his head, trying to chase the memory away when something occurred to him.

“What did you mean?” Gavin asked, startling both of them with the question after hours of strained silence. The back in front of him went taught, but he plowed on. “What did you mean about me knowing you were outside the room when I was talking to Meg?”

Ryan sucked in a harsh breath but stayed silent.

“Rye?” he asked, temporarily forgetting his anger at the other man.

“Don’t worry about it,” was the eventual, gruff, reply.

Gavin narrowed his eyes, glaring at the small hairless center in the back of Ryan’s head.  He started to comb through his memories of conversations between the red-haired doctor and himself before he realized there was one that stood out bright in his memory.

He gasped, and Ryan flinched.

“You heard-”

“I heard nothing that matters, now.”

Gavin pouted.  His captor’s voice had gone sour, lacking any of the warmth the two of them had managed to generate over their short trip.

“You’re being a right mong,” Gavin said before he could stop himself.  Not that he’s sure he would have anyway; it was certainly the truth.

“Can you manage to shut your mouth, highness, or do I need to shut it for you?” Ryan threw back casually over his shoulder.

It was so close to the words he’d said at the beginning of their trek that it hurt.  

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand Ryan’s plight; he understood guilt.  But he could never understand how he could suddenly become so cold. They had laughed and joked around, like friends. He knew what the other’s body felt like pressed flush against him. He knew how he tasted.

Was this really his plan? To just ignore it all and drag Gavin kicking and screaming to Roosteria?

He had to fight the urge to ask him just that, but he felt like he was already pushing his luck.  Ryan wouldn’t hurt him, he didn’t think (he hoped), but even he knew when best to push the buttons of a stubborn man.

Besides, they had a few days before they reached the border. He had charmed the man before, he could do it again.  Before it was through subtlety and misdirection, but this time he would just have to be honest. And patient.

If Ryan wanted to stubbornly cling to his kidnapping plan, that was just fine, Gavin had a plan of his own.

~

Unfortunately, Gavin remembered after a few more hours of tense silence, he was shite at being patient. His ass was sore from riding so high on the back of the saddle, and his arms were burning from holding him still.  

The tension had only been starting to slowly ease out Ryan’s shoulders when he pounced.

“What was it like,” he started gently, “where you’re from?”

Ryan tensed immediately, and Gavin nearly groaned in frustration.

“You don’t have to tell me where ” he said quickly. “I just want to know more about you.” He let the sentence hang in the silence for a moment, to let Ryan remember his words from last night before he continued. “Was it like Achieva or more like Roosteria?”

While he’d never been to Roosteria, he’d heard about the modern, bustling cities all his life. It was a world away from Achieva, all small villages and farmland as far as the eye could see.

He doesn’t know if it’s the reminder of his plea from the night before or Ryan’s own exhaustion at their silence that broke the other man, but when Ryan finally spoke he was grateful either way.

“More like this place, I guess,” Ryan said slowly, weighing his words carefully. “It was much smaller, though.”

“Oh?” Gavin asked, softly.

“Yeah, mostly farmland with only a few small keeps here and there.  Our capital was barely larger than Austin.”

“Where?”

Ryan snorted. “We were there for three days and you never thought to ask the name of the village?”

“Oi!” Gavin squawked. “I was trying to blend in, I thought it would sound weird to not know where I was.”

He could practically hear Ryan scoffing at him, but he did his best to ignore it.  Ryan was finally talking to him, and he didn’t want to screw it up.

“Is that where you grew up?” he asked. “In the capital?”

“No,” was the curt reply, his shoulders tense once again.

Gavin sighed. He let the silence strain around them again before he couldn’t handle it any longer.

“We need to name the horse.”

Ryan let out a startled laugh. “What?”

“It just feels so rude calling him ‘the horse’. We need to give him a proper name.”

His captor snorted. “I’m sure he had a ‘proper’ name before we stole him.”

Gavin leaned forward carefully, memorizing the sharp breath Ryan took in when he pressed up against him and ran his hand through the horse’s soft mane.

“He’s just been so good to us, haven’t you baby?” he cooed, and he could feel the other man’s deep chuckle rumbling through his chest.

“Is that his proper name? Baby?”

“Don’t be mean, Rye.  You’re just upset because you’re terrible at naming things.”

“What?”

“You thought Edgar was a good name for a cow!”

“Edgar’s a perfectly respectable name.”

“How many Edgar’s have you even met?” Gavin asked as he inched even closer in the seat, hiding his movements with the canter of the horse.

“Exactly why I should have named him that! There should be more Edgar’s in the world.”

Gavin giggled. “You’re a silly trumpet, Rye.”

“A silly trumpet,” Ryan mocked.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “So what do you want to name the horse, then?”

“Hmm,” Ryan started, not noticing as Gavin scooted up even closer until they were squished together. “I’m thinking Phillip.”

Gavin’s nose crinkled. “Phillip?”

“What’s wrong with Phillip?” Ryan asked while seeming to unconsciously lift his arms so Gavin could wrap them around his waist.

“It’s boring, is what’s wrong. He’s a horse, he needs an exciting name! Like, Horatio.”

“Horatio, again?” Ryan scoffed, and Gavin couldn’t help the squawk he let out. “And I’m the one who's terrible at naming things?”

“It’s a good name,” Gavin grumbled into Ryan’s shoulder, soaking in the way he could feel the other man’s answering chuckle through their contact.  “It’s like the name of a Hero’s steed in a story.”

“Gavin the Bright, and Horatio the Swift?” Ryan said mockingly. “Is that what you’re going for?”

“Ryan, no,” Gavin whined over Ryan’s laughter. “Don’t be horrible about it!”

A comfortable silence sat in after the older man’s laughter died down.  It was exactly what Gavin had been aiming for, to remind him of how it had been before.  How relaxing it could, and how much fun they could have together.

The silence was broken when Ryan pronounced with a somber tone, “This isn’t a story, though.”

Gavin sighed, resting his chin on his captor’s shoulder and looking out wistfully at the forest surrounding them. It seemed Ryan’s demons were a little too dark to appease with simple comradery.

“It must’ve been rough,” he said after a beat.

“What?”

“Having to leave your home.”

Ryan’s shoulders tensed again, but Gavin couldn’t seem to stop the words from spilling out of his mouth.

“It’s rough, being forced out of your home. Leaving everybody and everything you know, not knowing if you’ll ever see it again. It hurts.” Gavin sighed, as Ryan grew tenser. “I know what it’s like, is all.”

After a moment Ryan relaxed as if suddenly remembering the prince’s own sad childhood.   “Yeah,” he finally replied.

The prince had to stop from cheering. “How old were you?” he asked gently.

“Thirteen.”

The prince inched closer in his seat. “That’s terrible.”

“Nah,” Ryan replied, though it was nearly above a whisper. “There are far worse things that could have happened.”

It was then that Ryan seemed to notice how tightly Gavin was wrapped around him, his back going straight as a rod, his head jerking down to see the hands clasped around him. He cursed under his breath, startling Gavin before he stopped the horse suddenly.

“Rye?” he asked, cautiously.

“Still, not my name,” Ryan grumbled, before crawling off the horse and leaving Gavin staring dumbstruck. “Gonna stretch my legs,” he said a bit forcefully, before beginning to circle the horse, shaking out his legs and stretching his arms above his head.

When he climbed back on, he slid as far forward as possible, once again creating a visible barrier between the two of them. Gavin tried not to sigh too loudly, slouching down on the horse.  Patience, he reminded himself. He would just have to be patient.

Unfortunately, no matter how he tried for the rest of the day, he was unable to pull Ryan back into their friendly banter.

Gavin's patience slowly began to run thin. His sympathy for Ryan's guilt began to wane when every attempt at conversation was met with a grunt or single syllable answer. When they camped for the night, he even went as far as to tie Gavin to a tree as he had done the first night.

“You cannot be serious!” he whined, but Ryan just ignored him, tying the rope into a tight knot.

Gavin finally snapped. “Are you really going to do this?” he asked, unable to stop himself. “After everything, you’re still going to be a jerk?” he nearly screamed.

Unfortunately, Ryan's patience seemed to be at the end as well. “After everything, how do you still not understand how this works?” he seethed, throwing down the remaining rope, and turning to glare at the prince. “You are my prisoner, I am kidnapping you.”

"You're still going to pretend that's all that's going on?"

Ryan sneered and turned to start tying the horse to a nearby tree. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You kissed me!"

Ryan's hands stilled. The echo of Gavin’s angry, confusion-laced scream echoed in both of their ears. “That was obviously a mistake,” he growled.

Gavin choked, not so much shocked by Ryan’s words, but by how much they seemed to cut into him.  “Oh.”

He saw Ryan’s shoulder’s jerk straight, his face obscured from hunching over the horse’s reins. Gavin looked away, trying to hold back a growing sense of hopelessness at the situation.

“Is that how it is?” Gavin asked, nearly at a whisper, the anger gone as instantly as it had flared up.

“That’s how it is,” Ryan whispered back.

Gavin heard Ryan walking slowly towards him, but he kept his eyes trained on a clump of brush on the side of the forest floor.  His cheeks hurt from the force of keeping his face straight while he heard the man settle himself next to him, his back to the right side of Gavin’s tree.

“Get as much sleep as you can,” Ryan said, still whispering. “We’re not staying here long.”

Gavin didn’t answer him.

Some part of him was still trying to work on a how to continue his plan for tomorrow. He knew, logically, Ryan had to be just as frightened of all this as he was. He was asking Ryan to give up something he desired based on deep attraction he knew they both felt, and the hint that maybe they could be more.

From the moment he first sat and talked to Meg, and she treated him like a real person, he knew he didn’t want to go back to his previous life. He loved Geoff, and Griffon, and everyone at the castle, but now he’d know a real life with true freedom, and he knew he didn’t want to go back.  Somewhere in between Ryan giving that boy his knives, and awkwardly stumbling around on the dance floor, he’d started to picture the other man in his new life as well.

Still, he was gambling his freedom on the actions of a man he barely knew, on a hope that the man was as rash as Gavin.

And maybe Ryan was right, he was just spoiled. Geoff and Griffon had certainly gone out of their way to make up for his miserable childhood; the only thing in short supply in their household had been the word ‘No’.  He wanted his freedom, and he wanted Ryan, and he didn’t want to settle. It was the very definition of the harebrained idiocy that Geoff, and Michael, and even Ryan had accused him of many times.

Despite Ryan’s warning, he didn’t fall asleep for a long time. And though he never looked to check, he was pretty sure Ryan didn’t either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :( I know, more angst! I'm so sorry! I hope you liked it though. The next chapter should be out soon, barring how much I can stay away from the Steam Summer Sale. 
> 
> Feel free to hit up my tumblr at sailorbryant.tumblr.com. I love getting any asks or anything else you'd like to send! <3


	12. This Isn't a Story Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin's still angry with Ryan, and he lets him know it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've split this chapter and the next into two because it became such a beast. I'll post it this weekend, and that'll be the end of Gavin's POV. Sorry it's short, but I promise I'll make it up in the next chapter.
> 
> Thanks to @appleoftheireye and @ludomoose for their continuous encouragement. 
> 
> Hope you guys like it!

When Ryan shook him awake there was only a thin sliver of light on the horizon, but Gavin’s protests fell on deaf ears as the other man drug him awake. He grumbled while Ryan freed him from the ropes, and batted his hand away to lift his groggy self up onto the horse without help.

Ryan watched him, cautiously lifting himself up on the horse as well. He was obviously leery of Gavin and his sullen mood, but that just seemed to make him grumpier. Sleep had eluded him most of the night, and the amount he’d had - sitting up tied to a tree - hadn’t been too relaxing. His neck and back ached, only adding to the turmoil inside the rest of him.

One good look at Ryan and the bags under his eyes told him that his captor had spent the night in a similar fashion.  Still, Gavin had no sympathy for the man.

They were still a few hours away from midday if Gavin was judging the sun’s position correctly when Ryan finally broke through the stifling silence.

“Burnie’s not such a bad guy you know.”

Gavin scoffed. “He just kidnaps innocent people and uses them as bargaining chips.”

“He didn’t-doesn’t know you.” Ryan took a breath, only continuing once Gavin didn't comment on the slip of the tongue. “It’s easy to plan to hurt someone you’ve never met,” he finished solemnly.

Gavin shifted awkwardly on the horse, knowing exactly what Ryan was saying, but still feeling the resentment from last night bubbling through him.

“I actually think you would like him,” Ryan continued over Gavin’s annoyed noised. “He’s kind to his people, and he was overly kind to me.”

“Well yeah, you’re gonna bring him a pretty big prize,” he replied, not even trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“There were lots of people who wanted the job,” Ryan said. “He gave it to me, even while he was aware of my history.” He paused for a moment, before adding, “It was a sort of kindness.”

Gavin grumbled under his breath but didn’t argue.

“I think,” Ryan said, his voice gathering up some forced cheerfulness that set Gavin’s teeth on edge, “once you get there he’ll like you as well. You guys might even be friends.”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Gavin seethed. “That does seem to be my bag, doesn’t it? Moseying up to my captor?”

A jerk went through Ryan’s body as if Gavin had physically landed a blow.

“It’s worked so well for me before, so why not?” He was properly angry now. All of his resentment from Ryan’s refusal to admit what was between them was the grease that let his harshness flow freely.   "Maybe if I’m good, he'll even let me out of the dungeons every now and then to stretch my legs, before he throws me back in. Do you think he’ll kiss me, too?”

Ryan brought them to a sudden halt.

Gavin let out a confused noise before his captor spun his head around to face him.

All of Gavin’s righteous anger instantly left him, only to be replaced with fear. Gavin had thought that his captor’s mad grin as he slaughtered the bandit’s almost casually had been terrifying, but it had nothing on his current expression.  

Ryan’s face was burnt red in anger and there was a cold sneer lifting up the corner of his lip.

Images of the bandit’s bloodied corpses flashed before Gavin’s eyes, and their screams rang in his ears, and before he could think he scrambling off the back of the horse and making a run for it.

He heard his name being called out, but he kept running. Fear sent his limbs into a panicked rush, however, and he had barely covered any distance before he found himself struggling over a nest of thick roots that bulged up from the ground. Gavin stumbled towards a large oak, trying to place it between his pursuer and himself.

His head briefly turned when he looped the tree and squalled when he saw that Ryan was right on him. It was quickly followed by a gasp as his front was slammed forward against the rough bark. His arm was grasped tightly as he was spun around.

Ryan’s glare was intense. Fear took an icy hold in his chest and throat, stopping him from letting out a sound. On instinct he brought his hands up to cover his face, shrinking away in fear.

The hand holding him in place instantly let go. Gavin immediately opened his eyes to see that Ryan had backed away from him, a pained look on his face.

Ryan looked at the ground, hiding his face, and the fear slowly seeped out of Gavin. They froze like that, Gavin still trying to process what had happened, watching his captor’s fists clench and unclench while he obviously battled within himself.

Gavin finally lowered his hands, his fear being replaced with a mixture of understanding and hope, and he was barely aware that he had moved until he was standing directly in front of the other man.

“Rye,” he whispered. He moved his hand out, hesitantly touching Ryan’s shoulder. The man jerked but didn’t move away. Emboldened by the lack of retaliation, Gavin slowly ran his hand up Ryan’s neck, to cup his cheek and lift his face.

He couldn’t even begin to decipher the look on Ryan’s face. The anger was gone, but the stubborn set of his jaw and the gaunt look in his eyes was only marginally better.  Gavin smiled and caressed his cheek with his thumb.

“Is this a game to you?” Ryan finally mumbled.

“Not really. Not anymore,” he replied, laughing softly, before lifting his other hand to grasp Ryan’s shoulder. “Games are fun, this is terrifying.”

Before Ryan could reply, Gavin pulled the other man down into a kiss.

It was much softer than their last kiss; slower, and almost timid. Gavin took his time, exploring the feel of other’s mouth without the alcohol clouding his mind. When he teased his tongue hesitantly across the other’s lips, they immediately opened, and he wanted to memorize the way the way the other man tasted. Ever so slowly, waiting for Ryan to back away, he shifted closer, tilting his head to deepen the kiss.

It felt like they stayed that way for a very long time, Gavin’s hands and their lips their only connection, before Ryan finally moved forward to grasp at his hips, relaxing against him. The sudden connection sent heat throughout his whole body, and Gavin moaned into their kiss.

Ryan groaned in response, and the grip on Gavin’s hips tightened as he was pulled flush against the larger body. Even with the added contact, their kiss stayed soft and slow, both of them taking their time and feeling the other out.

The heat building between them seemed to reach its’ peak when Gavin let out another moan, and Ryan pulled away slowly.

A soft sound, that sounded awfully like a whimper, was pulled from Gavin’s lips. He took a moment to his catch his breath before he finally gained the courage to meet the others man gaze. However, he was surprised to find that Ryan wasn’t looking at him at all.

Ryan’s eyes were open almost comically wide, and staring straight over Gavin’s shoulder. Gavin immediately spun around, and they both stood stunned as they took in what they were seeing.

At first, all he saw was the horse. It staggered slowly, narrowly missing the trees at it made its way towards them. It took Gavin a moment before he finally noticed the man slumped forward on the saddle.

Ryan unsheathed his sword with one hand, the other reaching out to pull the prince behind him, but Gavin was already hurrying past him.

“Gavin, no!” Gavin heard him call out, but he didn’t slow down until he was close enough to grasp the horse’s lead.

He whispered calm words to the horse, soothing him with a soft pat on his nose, and ignoring Ryan’s frantic calls behind him.  Once he was sure the horse wasn’t going to run off, he leaned forward to check on the unconscious rider.

He was a large man, with a long, scraggly beard that would have captivated Gavin on any other day.  For now, though, he was far too occupied with the blood seeping through a tattered cut on the man's shoulder.

Ryan caught up to him just as he was trying to shake the man awake.

“What are you doing?” Ryan growled, but Gavin ignored him, grabbing the man’s non-injured shoulder and shaking him awake.

“Hey, Hey! Wake up!”

“Leave him alone, you idiot,” Ryan said.

“He’s hurt you knob, we gotta help him,” Gavin said in a panic.

“We’ve got to do no such thing,” Ryan growled, but both of them went quiet as the bearded man let out a loud moan.

He slowly sat up, Gavin’s grasp steadying him before he hissed in pain and grabbed his shoulder. “Son ova’ bitch,” he mumbled, letting out a groan of pain before his bloodshot eyes finally focused on the two men near him.  

“You’re alive!” Gavin squealed, and the man winced.

“If you say so.”   

“What happened?”

The man sighed. “Got jumped on my way home,” he mumbled.  “Managed to lose them, but I guess I passed out. Was too drunk to be riding, but I wanted to get home and check on my cat.”

Ryan snorted.

Gavin sent him a withering look, before turning back. “It’s okay,” Gavin said to the man. “We can get you back to town.”

He felt Ryan grasp his arm, digging his fingers in tightly, but at the same moment that the bearded man shook his head.

“Nah, I’ll be fine, just need to get home and sleep it off.”

Gavin gave him an unimpressed look, ignoring Ryan’s death grip on his arm. “You’re bleeding-”

“I need to speak to you,” Ryan growled, suddenly right beside his ear.  “Right now,” he repeated after a second when Gavin didn’t respond.

The prince gave a tight-lipped smile. “One second,” he said, letting the man get his balance on the horse before letting himself be drug away while the injured man gave them a confused look.

“What do you think you are doing?” Ryan whispered through clenched teeth.

“Not letting a poor innocent bloke die?”

Ryan glared at him. “Oh, so you just know he’s innocent, do you?”

Gavin scoffed. “I’m a great judge of character.”

Ryan opened his mouth, but Gavin wasn’t letting him talk.  He didn’t know if it the embers of rage that still burned from Ryan’s earlier words - or the adrenaline from the kiss - but he wasn’t going to let Ryan win this.

“I don’t care what you think, Rye, I’m doing this. I’m helping this man, then you can go ahead and drop me off in my cage to be Burnie’s pet or whatever.” Gavin took couldn't help but take a bit of joy in the way Ryan flinched. “You can either help or knock me out, but those are your only two choices right now, mate.”

When he finished, Gavin spun on his heel, quickly ripping his arm from Ryan’s stunned fingers and immediately went back to the bearded man who was struggling to sit up in the saddle.

“I’m Gav,” the prince said, giving him a kind smile and once again taking hold of the horse’s lead.

The bearded man gave him a long look, his eyes flickering towards where he knew Ryan was standing, probably sending a withering look their way before he finally met Gavin’s eyes again.

“Adam,” he finally said.

“Well, Adam,” Gavin started, hesitating for a moment when he heard Ryan walking back towards them, “if you think we’re letting you go off on your own you’re wrong.”

Adam opened his mouth to argue but Gavin was on a roll today apparently and stopped him before he could even start.

“We can at least get you home. You can barely even sit up, can you?”

Adam gave a defeated sigh, before shaking his head. “Thanks, man. My house isn’t far from here.”

“Here, scoot back a bit,” he told Adam, lifting his foot into the stirrup. “Help me up, Rye,” Gavin tried to say, but his voice cracked in the middle and it came out as a whisper. He didn’t dare turn around, terrified of what look the other man was currently sporting.  

Still, he was pleasantly surprised when thick fingers wrapped around his waist, holding him in place as he swung his leg across the saddle.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, still not looking in Ryan’s direction. After a second, he finally turned to see Ryan stomping away to retrieve their stolen horse from where he’d abandoned it in his rush to catch Gavin.  

Adam collapsed forward across Gavin’s back, and the prince grimaced as he felt blood seeping onto his tunic. He listened carefully to the man’s directions and kept his eyes straight ahead when he heard that the hoof steps that signaled his captor’s return.  

He sighed, before finally trudging up the confidence he had felt when telling Ryan off, and set the horse into motion, trying his best to stop from gagging at the smell of blood that was hitting him in waves.

Gavin was desperate to stall as much as he could before they could reach the border and even the fact that Ryan was allowing this trip was a sign that, despite his words, the man was wavering in his decision.  Any more time spent with the man could only help at this point.

Still, even if Ryan ended up dragging him to Roosteria in the end, then Gavin’s final act before being imprisoned was to help save somebody's life, and he could probably live with that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh? Hopefully it's not too terrible!


	13. This Isn't A Story: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boy's arrive at Adam's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JUST AS A WARNING, there's a part later that dances on the border of Dub-con. Nothing explicit happens, but it's a little rough, and I didn't want anyone to be caught off guard.
> 
> Also, huge, huge, HUGE shoutout to [hyzenthleia](http://hyzenthleia.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, who edited this bad boy for me, and was just all around a huge help in getting this chapter into pristine shape. 
> 
> And, as always, a shout out to [ludomoose](ludomoose.tumblr.com) who listens to my crazy Skype rants at all hours of the day or night and keeps me sane. <3
> 
> This will be the last chapter from Gavin's POV.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! <3

The journey went far quicker than Gavin would have hoped. Still, he couldn't lament it too much as the smell of blood kept nagging at his nose and threatening to send him gagging.

He tried to keep up a steady stream of small talk with Adam to keep the man awake, but the man only responded with short, one word answers. The longest string of words he heard the whole trip was when, in a moment of silence, he muttered a barely audible, “fucking Joel. "

"Whose Joel? "

"A stupid fucking asshole," he muttered.

Gavin gave up asking questions after that.

He kept the horse at a steady pace, going as fast as he dared without jostling Adam onto the ground. Ryan led his horse beside them, and Gavin ignored the way the man tried to catch his eye. He was surely just trying to glare at him, and Gavin wasn’t going to give him the chance.

The sun had barely moved from its position in the sky before they were breaking through the tree line into an open valley with a large wooden cabin in the center.  The prince took a moment to look over the gorgeous cabin, while Ryan tied both of their leads to the porch.

It was a newer house, probably only built in the last few years, and it was put together with such detail that Gavin couldn’t help but admire it.  It reminded him of the hunting cabin where the royal family would spend the summer at, and he did his best to ignore the pang of hurt that tugged at his heart at the memory.  Geoff and him, wrestling in the waist-deep pond, Griffon egging them on from the sidelines, while Michael screamed at the both of them to knock it off before he was finally dragged into the fight as well.

He physically shook his head to try to chase away the memory, only to find Ryan standing beside him, with a worried tilt to his eyebrows.

Gavin gave him a blinding smile, and his captor quickly looked away and towards the injured man on his back.

“Hold the horse still, I’ll get him,” Ryan grumbled.

Gavin frowned but did as he was told while Ryan helped the half-conscious man down to the ground. The prince quickly scrambled after them, while Ryan slung Adam’s arm over his shoulder and slowly started dragging him towards the door.

Gavin buzzed around them, reaching his hands out like he wanted to help, but Ryan’s glare made him keep his distance.  He opened the door for them, wincing when Adam’s injured shoulder grazed the side of the frame and he let out a hiss of pain.  

When he turned to take in the inside of the house, he froze mid-step.  If he thought the outside was gorgeous, it had nothing on the inside. The furniture was all expertly crafted, made with fabrics that could rival the quality of some from the palace.

He shared a surprised look with Ryan over the top of Adam’s slumped head, though when the man let out a pained moan, Gavin fought down the urge to comment.

Ryan carefully laid the man down on the couch in the center of the room, moving some pillows to prop up his head before taking a step back. A soft meow startled them both as a small cat bounded down the stairs heading straight for the man lying on the couch.

“Solaire,” Adam cried out, as the cat skidded past Ryan and climbed along the edge of the couch, whining down at the injured man. He slowly lifted his arm to pet the top of her head. “Glad you’re okay, sweetie.”

Ryan and Gavin shared another look.

“What now?” Gavin asked, and the withering look that Ryan sent him had him fighting down a nervous giggle.  

Ryan’s eyebrows knotted down in concentration, glaring at Gavin then back at the injured man who was currently cradling the small kitten to his noninjured shoulder, as he weighed his options.

“Thanks for your help, but I’ll be fine,” Adam mumbled. “I’m just glad Solaire’s okay.”

Gavin held his breath.

Suddenly, Ryan’s shoulders slumped, and he made a point to avoid looking at the prince as he turned to Adam.  “Do you have any herbs?”

Adam looked like he wanted to argue, but after a pause, he waved vaguely in the direction of the small pantry off to the side of a small dining table.  

“Anything to cover the wound?” Ryan asked, making his way towards the pantry.

“There’s some undyed linen in a trunk upstairs,” he mumbled after a moment.

Ryan nodded, pointing towards the stairs. “Go get it, idiot.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, but quickly bounced up the stairs, going in the first door he found. His eyes once again widened when he took in the large wooden post bed, draped in thick, luxurious furs. He fought down the urge to stare as he quickly searched through the chests that lined a large windowed wall until he found a bundle of off-white linen.  

He gave the bed one last look before he bounded back downstairs.

Ryan was searching through the pantry cabinets with a determined gaze, glass bottles full of different types of herbs tucked under one arm. He suddenly let out a small celebratory sound and pulled out a large jug of what Gavin was sure was an ale.

Before Gavin could open his mouth to ask, Ryan was already ripping the linen’s out of his hand and settling himself in beside the injured man.  

Gavin watched, silent until Ryan began to tear at the bloodied rags still clinging to the wound, and he turned away, gagging.

“If you’re going to throw up, just go outside,” Ryan said, giving him a withering look.

Gavin started to argue, but the smell of blood was finally starting to get to him.  Instead, he just nodded and slowly made his way towards the front door.

“This is going to hurt,” he heard Ryan say when he’d turned his attention back to the injured man, uncorking the bottle of ale.

“Nice change of pace, then,” Adam grumbled, and Gavin was delighted to hear Ryan let out a small chuckle.

When Adam let out the first hiss of pain, Gavin scattered out the front door. He wanted to watch, he did, impressed and touched at how Ryan was going out of his way to help the injured man, but his stomach just couldn’t allow it.  His stubborn pride was the only thing that had kept him from throwing up before, as the smell of blood clung to him the whole way here, but he wasn’t going to make it much longer in the room.  

Speaking of, he quickly ripped his top off, glad to finally be free from the blood that had soaked through his shirt. He quickly searched the area and broke into a giddy run when he found his prize: a well.

When he finally returned to the house, after stretching his now soaked but clean shirt across the porch railing to dry, he was excited to find the smell of blood had been replaced with the rich scent of herbs.  

Ryan was still sitting on the edge of the couch, grinding a mixture into a small bowl before placing it down on the small table beside him.  

Gavin let a sad smile tilt his lips as the image of Griffon standing in the kitchen, busy cooks bustling around her, while she crushed a flower in a small bowl, swam before his eyes.

(“It’s just something to help Geoff sleep,” she’d told him, while he watched, entranced. “Have you never seen people use herbs before?”

Gavin shook his head.

She scoffed. “I’ll take you out the garden tomorrow. Everyone should at least know some simple herbal remedies.”

“Is it like a potion?”

She laughed, not mocking like Geoff’s would be, before reaching over to ruffle his hair until he pulled away. “Sure, in a way.”)

Gavin cautiously tiptoed over beside him as the blonde began to apply the mixture to his fingers. “What are you doing?”

“Just something to stop the bleeding.”

“How do you know how to do that?” Gavin asked in awe.

Ryan scoffed, not looking away from his patient. “How do you not?”

Gavin rolled his eyes, ignoring Adam’s stilted laugh at his expense, but didn’t argue. Griffon had spent years trying to teach him simple remedies, but none of it had ever managed to stick. He just didn’t have the mind for it, really.

While Ryan set about wrapping the wound up, Gavin moseyed around the small kitchen. Finding the kettle Ryan had used for his herbs, he poured fresh water in it from a jug near the door and set about making them some tea.

“There’s not much else I know to do, unfortunately,” he heard Ryan telling Adam, while Gavin set the tea down to let it steep. “It’s not too deep a cut, but an actual doctor would be far more helpful.”

Gavin wandered back over to the couch in time to see Adam shake his head.

“No doctor in town,” he mumbled. “I’ll be fine, I've had worse. Just need to sleep it off.” His eyes were already drooping considerably while he spoke, his words slurring with drowsiness.

Ryan nodded. “If you’re sure.”

Adam shifted against the couch, closing his eyes before he waved his free hand in their direction. “Just be quiet while you’re robbing me blind, okay?” he said casually.

Gavin stiffened, eyes widening as he stared at the back of Ryan’s head, instantly worried about the man’s reaction.

“Don’t worry,” Ryan replied, “we’ll leave you some ale behind.”

There was a silent moment that stretched between them before Adam let out a soft laugh and slapped Ryan on the shoulder.

“You’re a good man.”

Gavin smiled, lifting his hand to cover his mouth when he saw Ryan started to turn towards him.  He took a moment to soak in his captor’s embarrassed look, before the older man’s face went still with shock.

The prince’s grin faded as he watched Ryan’s eyes trail down from his face to his chest, and it was only when a slight red tinge started to cover the tops of Ryan’s cheeks that Gavin remembered he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

His face turned as red as Ryan’s.

“O-oh, um, I washed my shirt,” he stuttered out, his mouth suddenly not wanting to cooperate.  He felt light headed, as Ryan’s eyes continued to rake over him. “Cause of the blood and what’not.  I left it on the porch to dry.”

“You can borrow one of mine,” Adam offered, his eyes still closed, oblivious to the sudden tension that had sprung up between the two men.

“T-thanks,” Gavin said, awkwardly stumbling up the stairs, and leaving the heat of Ryan’s gaze on his back.

When he returned, freshly draped in a far too large cloth top, that smelled an awful lot like a cat, Ryan was rummaging through the cabinets once more.

“You aren’t seriously planning on robbing him?” Gavin whispered, appalled, glancing over at Adam who was softly snoring away on the couch.

Ryan snorted, his eyes only briefly looking over at the prince, before darting quickly back to the pantry. “I’m trying to fix something to eat.”

Gavin froze at the bottom of the stairs, slowly raising an eyebrow, while Ryan studiously avoided looking at him. “We aren’t leaving?” he blurted out.

Ryan stopped his digging to turn and give the prince a dry look. “I’m sorry, are you in a rush?”

Gavin shook his head, fighting down a blush before he rushed over to pour the tea that had left to steep.

“I figured you would want to stick around long enough to make sure he wasn’t going to die. I’d hate to have to listen to your whining for the rest of the trip.”

The prince huffed, glaring at the back of Ryan’s head.

“It can’t hurt to give the horse a night to rest as well. We can leave first thing in the morning.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, pouring out a cup of tea for himself and Ryan. If the other man wanted to pretend like he wasn’t stalling to get the prince back to Roosteria, that was just fine. He had a plan, and this would just give him one more night to put it into action.

The prince quickly smothered the smirk that had twisted his lips, taking his cup of tea over to the dining table and sitting down. Gavin let the memory of their kiss and the way Ryan's eyes raked over his bare chest, flow through him and gather heat, as he thought of how to best take advantage of the gift of an extra night.  He watched over the rim of his cup as Ryan bustled around the kitchen. As much as the other man tried to hide it, there was an awkward stiffness to his movements as if trying too hard to seem normal.

This would be too easy.

"I told you I was a good judge of character.”

Ryan’s shoulders stiffened for a second, before rolling right back into motion, but he didn’t respond. Not that it mattered, Gavin thought smugly. Not with the good humor and blind trust the injured man had shown them - not to mention the picture he made sprawled on his  back snuggling a small kitten to his chest- Ryan couldn’t really argue.

"So, where did you learn about herbs?"

He was silent just long enough for Gavin to begin to worry.  Dread had just begun to seep into his heart when Ryan finally replied.

“My mother,” he whispered, hesitant.

The prince should’ve been worried at how quickly the dread flew from his heart. How just two words, begrudgingly given, from the man could make him such a thrilled jolt run through him, but he couldn’t help it.

“Griffon tried to teach me when I was younger, but it just never seemed to stick. I thought it would be pretty fascinating, like standing over a cauldron and changing people into cows, but it was mostly just memorizing plants.” He scrunched his nose up. “I’ve just never been good at paying attention to boring stuff like that.”

Ryan snorted. “Surely not, can’t imagine that.”

“Oi,” Gavin protested, but there was nothing but good humor behind it.  “It’s not my fault that stuff is boring.”

Ryan snorted again.

“It’s not like I’m stupid. This one time Geoff bet me I couldn’t memorize all the lords’ house sigils in a week, and I did!”

Ryan laughed. “There are very few people who couldn’t accomplish that in a week if given the right motivation.”

“Do you know how many houses there are in Achieva?” Gavin protested.

“Knowing you, I’m assuming four?”

Gavin gasped dramatically.

“Oh, I’m sorry, five?” Ryan mocked.

“Oi, Rye, you’re awful.”

They bickered happily for a while, and soon Gavin found himself regaling Ryan with various stories from his childhood at the castle. Ryan eventually joined him at the table as he waited for his broth to cool. He listened intently, occasionally inserting comments or teasing Gavin, but didn't offer up any stories of his own, the prince couldn’t help but notice.

They only stopped when Ryan took a moment to wake Adam up encouraging him to eat as much of the broth as he could. Gavin didn't even try to keep the fond smile off of his face as he watched Ryan help the other man sit up and eat.

Ryan tried to convince the man to let him help him upstairs to the bed, but Adam just waved him off.

"Nah, I'll be fine.”

When Ryan made his way back to the table, finally digging into his own bowl, Gavin gave him a wide grin. His captor quickly averted his eyes to his food.

"What's the capital of Roosteria like?" Gavin asked nonchalantly.

To his surprise, Ryan answered him without hesitation.

Ryan went into great detail about the tall, spiraling buildings, and the small, paved streets that were constantly packed to the brim with people.  His words matched the stories Gavin had heard all his life, but he was still unable to truly imagine it.  Even for a capital, Achieva was still rather provincial, and Thame had been a small port city. Large, crowded, cities like Roosteria City were beyond his scope of imagination.

As soon as Ryan became self-conscious about his impassioned description and went silent, Gavin took a gamble.

“Were you planning on staying in the capital?”

Ryan went tense. “Most likely,” he answered guardedly. “For a while, at least.”

Gavin looked down at the table. “Do you think you’ll be able to come visit me?”

The prince waited for a breath before he finally raised his eyes to meet Ryan’s.

In retrospect, he wasn’t sure exactly what he was hoping for in the other man’s response. Maybe guilt, or even anger as he remembered the timid kiss he’d received in the forest just that morning.

Nothing could have prepared him for the pained, almost anguished look that was directed back at him.

Gavin quickly looked away, as he grasped onto a new subject like a dying man. He jumped around rambling on this and that, his nervous chatter filling the room until he finally gained the courage to meet Ryan’s eyes again. Luckily, the pained look had faded away.

They slowly eased back into their easy conversation, though Gavin would catch his captor staring off to the side, as if in deep contemplation, and the prince would have to fight the urge to frown.

When they were finished eating, Ryan crossed the room to check on Adam, and Gavin took the chance to retrieve his shirt from the porch.  He was pleased to find that it was mostly dry, and the soaps he’d found out by the well had completely done away with the noxious smell. He quickly ripped Adam’s far too large shirt over his head and flung it over the banister.

He slid his arms into his shirt, stopping for a second to admire the vision of the sun setting behind the tree line. The mixture of orange and blue hues left him breathless for a moment, and he stood in place letting himself enjoy the gorgeous view.

If his plan didn’t succeed, it might be one of the last ones he saw for a while, he thought suddenly. He sighed, shaking his head to push the depressing thought away, before finally lifting his arms up to finally start to slide his shirt down over his head.

He jumped when he heard a strangled sound from behind him. He spun his head around in time to see Ryan standing halfway out the door, his hand tightly grasping the door frame and his mouth slightly agape.

“What?” he squawked, immediately lowering his arms still wrapped in his shirt, and spinning slightly to try to look on his back.

Ryan’s face went blank, and he shook his head. “Is there any particular reason why you’re standing outside naked?”

Gavin huffed. “I’m not naked you sausage! I was just putting my shirt back on.” As soon as he finished his sentence, he finally seemed to put two and two together and his lips slid into a smile. He slowly turned his back to Ryan, pulling his arms forward to make it look as taut as possible, before he drawled slowly, “You like what you see, though?”

Ryan huffed. “Please.”

Still, when he crossed in front of Gavin and down the porch steps, his eyes were determinately looking anywhere else but at the prince.

Gavin giggled to himself, before finally pulling his shirt over his head. “Where are you going?”

“To stable the horses,” Ryan grumbled, crossing the yard to where they had haphazardly tied the horses up earlier.

“Ah,” Gavin quipped. “Don’t take too long, it’s gonna be dark soon.” Ryan gave him a strange look, but Gavin just smirked back at him and dropped his voice to a deep drawl. “And I’d hate to have to lay in that big bed all by myself.”

Ryan stumbled slightly, and Gavin bit his lip to keep from laughing.

“See you upstairs, Rye,” he drawled, before turning on his heel and marching inside.

Gavin checked once more on Adam before he began searching the room for something to cover him with. He snorted at the man’s loud snores that followed him around the room. He dragged a large quilt from a chest underneath the stairs, only taking a second to suspiciously admire the fine quality, before he draped it across the sleeping man.

Solaire let out a small meow, before crawling over to settle on top of the quilt over Adam’s chest. Gavin smiled, before he skipped up the stairs to the lavish bedroom he had seen before to wait for Ryan.

Gavin should’ve been embarrassed at how much he jumped around the room trying to decide on how to place himself for Ryan to find him. He briefly tossed about the idea of striping and letting him walk in to find Gavin, naked and sprawled out atop the lush furs that covered the gorgeous bed. The thought of the look on Ryan’s face alone had him idly toying with the drawstring holding up his pants. He quickly shook his head. No, he needed a softer touch than that.

He ended up bouncing around the room, unashamedly digging through Adam’s belongings - “Who owns this many furs?” he mumbled to himself -  while he tried to burn through his nervous energy.  

It didn’t seem to help, however, as the more time passed, the more nervous he became.  Surely, it didn’t take this long to tie up a few horses.  Throw some hay at them, maybe a carrot or two, and then he should have been out of there. But as the sun began to sink further behind the horizon there was still no sign of the man, and Gavin began to swim in his doubts.

Maybe he’d been reading this wrong?

No. He’d felt the man’s passion when they kissed. He’d seen him go red in the face from just a few small glimpses at Gavin shirtless. His easy banter over dinner, the way he’d stumbled when Gavin had mentioned the bed. The pained look on his face.

Ryan wanted him. Just as much as he wanted Ryan. And now they had this gorgeous bed all to themselves, in a cabin deep in the woods, far from any town or main road where they were likely to be found.

Yet here he sat, waiting.

When the sun finally set, plunging the room into darkness, he let a single candle on the nightstand, ignoring the way his hands shook.  He finally slid onto the bed, propping himself up against the headboard, and sighing petulantly.  

As if his sigh willed the sound into existence, he heard the front door downstairs slam shut. He stiffened before he leapt into action. He quickly moved into position,  sprawling himself, hopefully invitingly, out across the furs, and loosened the strings across the top of his tunic so the top of his chest was open to the air.

He was just fluffing his hair into place when he heard the sounds of Ryan’s boots slowly ascending the stairs.  

When Ryan finally opened the door, Gavin couldn’t have been happier with his reaction. His captor froze in place halfway through the entrance way, his hand still on the door. His gaze slowly moved over Gavin’s prone form, his eyes widening slowly as he took in the whole picture.

“Hey, Rye,” Gavin said with a smile.

Ryan suddenly seemed to snap out of his trance. “Really?” he said, snorting and rolling his eyes.

“Really, what?” Gavin teased, before stretching his arms above his head as he faked a yawn. He didn’t even have to look to know that Ryan’s eyes had to be frozen on the small sliver of skin he’d revealed when his shirt had ridden up.

But when he did look, Ryan’s face wasn’t filled to the brim with lust like he’d hoped, nor were his cheeks dusted with the red, embarrassed tint like before. His mouth was pulled into a taught line, but his eyes were blank of any sort of passion. He seemed almost, bored.

Gavin felt something flip in his stomach, and worry started to fill him, but before he could even articulate his fears into a concise thought, Ryan was speaking.

“Is that the best you’ve got?”

Gavin’s breath caught in his throat. “W-what?”

Ryan snorted, finally fixing his cruelly, bemused eyes on the prince. “All this time and the best plan you could come up with is to fuck your way to freedom?”

“What?” Gavin repeated, in a whisper this time.

Ryan huffed, pulling his shirt over his head, and flinging it to the ground. “Well, let’s see what you’ve got,” he said, casually, before falling down on the bed onto his knees and starting to climb towards Gavin.

The prince jerked up, scrambling backward until his back hit the headboard. “Woah, Rye, what are you-”

“What’s wrong, your highness?” Ryan teased, climbing leisurely forward until he towered over the prince. Gavin pushed at his chest weakly, his confusion sapping his strength, but Ryan didn’t budge.

“This was your plan, wasn’t it?” Ryan said, leaning over him with a bemused smirk. “To prove you’re such a good lay that I’d throw away a mountain of gold, and lands, and a title just for the chance to have you once?”

“No!” Gavin pleaded, digging his hands into Ryan’s tunic. “I told you, I wanted us to-” When Ryan’s smirk faded into a thin slit, Gavin couldn’t even finish his sentence. His captor’s cold eyes, and casually cruel words made the ‘run away together’ die on his tongue.

“Please, not your sob story again,” Ryan huffed.

Gavin's heart throbbed painfully away in his chest.

“I’ve got everything in the world, but it’s not ‘nough,” Ryan mocked in a gaudy parody of Gavin’s accent.  “Surely you don’t think I’m that big of an idiot,” Ryan continued, and every word was like a new cut against his skin. “Burnie warned me, you know, that you were smarter than you appeared. I wonder how many other would-be captors you’ve fooled with the doe-eyed innocent look and pitiful little story. How far would we have made it before you left me high and dry in some inn while you high tailed it back to your brother?”

“No!” Gavin choked out, and the word was dangerously close to a sob. “I meant everything-”

“Even you’re not that naive,” Ryan said casually.

Gavin felt his breath ripped from his lungs. All of his dreams of traveling the world with the other man swam before his eyes, before breaking apart into tiny little shards.

Ryan leaned forward like he meant to kiss the prince, but Gavin’s hands on his chest stopped him.

“I thought this is what you wanted?” Ryan said, mockingly.

Gavin wanted to cry. Or scream. Or just curl into a ball and wither away. He pushed feebly at Ryan’s chest once more, as he realized that he - maybe for the first time - finally understood what the phrase, ‘playing with fire’, meant.

“No,” he said weakly, before adding a little more forcibly, “this is definitely not what I want.”

Ryan snorted, immediately rolling off him and to the other side of the bed. “Not as fun when I’m on to your plan is it?”

Gavin didn’t move, shock freezing him in place. Even when Ryan leaned over to blow out the candle and plunge them into darkness, Gavin stayed still.

“We’ll leave first thing in the morning, I suggest you get some sleep,” Ryan told him offhandedly, before turning his back to Gavin and apparently settling in.

Despair flowed through Gavin like poison through his veins, flushing out the last traces of hope that he’d been clinging to, as suddenly every single snub of his intelligence that had been used to describe him over the years seemed to hit home.

He really was an idiot.

Memories of Ryan’s smile and teasing glances tried to swim into his thoughts, but he forcefully drove them away. He couldn’t deal with that right now. The man had made his position clear and Gavin really only had one option left.

He pushed away the hurt and the anger that was fighting to bubble up, and let nothing but cold determination wash over him. If Ryan thought he was going to lie here all night, licking his wounds before letting himself be dragged off to Roosteria, he was going to have a rude awakening in the morning.

Gavin rolled over to face away from his captor. He slowed down his breathing, counting to four between each breath, and waited.

He listened intently, but it wasn’t long before his captor’s breathing slowed, and even a shorter time still when Gavin could finally hear him letting out soft, almost inaudible, snores.

Moving cautiously, every limb filled with nervous tension, he carefully pulled himself from the bed, and tiptoed over to the door to pry it open as slowly as possible.  Afraid to look back in case he lost his nerve, he kept his eyes forward, before scampering down the stairs, scrambling past Adam’s prone form on the couch, and scurrying out the front door.

He burst into a run in the yard, finally not worried about making too much noise, and headed straight for the stables. He slowed down once inside, beating down the adrenaline pumping through his veins, in favor of not spooking the horses.

He nearly let out of grateful sob when he noticed that while Adam’s horse was bare, their stolen horse - Horatio, he thought stubbornly - was still saddled, a large sack tied to the side. Ryan must have planned on them having a quick departure in the morning, he thought, ignoring the swift pain the thought caused him.

Moving swiftly, conscious of the fact that Ryan could come barreling through the door at any second, he grabbed Horatio’s lead and led him out the pen and into the narrow corridor.  He bit down an excited squawk when he noticed Ryan’s bow and quiver hanging from a hook near the door. He immediately pulled them down looping the strap to the quiver around his chest and tying it as tightly as his trembling fingers would allow, and loosely throwing the bow over his arm.

What an idiot, he thought with a snort, before he scrambled over to the horse and slid his foot into the stirrup, gripping the horn tightly and pulling himself up.

Gavin was halfway into the saddle before he realized he was putting all his weight on his bad leg. It had been holding up fine, but apparently, the strain from the last day had finally caught up to him and pain suddenly flared through him. His ankle gave out and he fell backward, letting out a cry, before slamming painfully into the ground.

The breath knocked out of his chest, and he could only watch through blurry eyes as Horatio jerked forward in a panic, knocking over a large stack of crates by the door and sending their contents spilling to the ground before the horse settled once more.

At first, all he felt was the pain. He took a few deep breaths, fighting through it by forcing his blurry vision to focus. The first thing he was finally able to see was Ryan’s bow, which had apparently tumbled from his back and landed on the ground next to him. He slowly breathed in and out as he lit himself to focus on the bow, his eyes narrowing suddenly when he noticed a small carving just above the grip.  

It was a small sigil of some sort, with a large tree encircled by vines.  Something was clawing just at the edge of Gavin’s memory as he realized he’d seen it before, but he just couldn’t remember where.

Maybe one of the houses of Roosteria, he thought offhandedly.

Horatio let out a snort, and Gavin shook his head. Oh yeah, he was escaping.

Realizing the immediate pain had vanished, and only leaving the dull ache in his injured ankle, he grabbed the bow and cautiously crawled to his feet. He limped back to his horse, pausing only when he realized the large sack tied to the saddle had come open.

He smirked as he saw the loaves of bread and bundles of meat that Ryan must have pilfered quietly from Adam’s pantry when Gavin wasn’t looking, but the smirk quickly fell when he noticed what lay at the bottom.

The Herobrine doll.

Adrenaline was pumping through him, begging him to move, but he stood in place, still staring down at the doll.

Ryan had packed his Herobine doll. The words tumbled through his head, but no matter how many times he repeated them they didn’t quite make sense.  Gavin had assumed he’d lost it during their mad scramble from the inn, along with the small cow doll as well, but Ryan must have had it this whole time.

And he had packed it.

Like when he’d seen the sigil, something was once again crawling at the edges of Gavin’s consciousness trying to solidify into a coherent thought.

He jerked his head towards the hook where he’d seen the bow hung.  Right beside the door. In plain view.

His eyes slid absentmindedly over the door to the crates Horatio had knocked over, glancing over the contents that now littered the ground when he spotted something behind where the crates had sat. A large sheath, the hilt of the sword sticking out the top, piled on top of a bag identical to the one that had been tied to his saddle.

He stumbled towards it, almost in a daze, ignoring Horatio’s whines behind him, and dropping to his knees. Even as he pulled the sword from the sheath he knew what he’d see, the shining crest of Roosteria etched into the blade.

All of his doubts, and worries, and fears seemed to vanish, as one solid thought pulsed to the forefront of his mind and he knew it as a fact.

Ryan had meant for him to leave.

The sword fell from his trembling fingers, and clattered loudly to the ground, but Gavin didn’t pay it any attention, turning to fumble with the sack lying beside him. Ryan had meant for him to leave. Without him. He leafed through the loaves of bread and meat, the contents almost identical to Gavin’s sack, but when he stretched the bag fully open what was lying at the bottom dragged a choked sob from his lips.

The stuffed cow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Don't kill me?


	14. No Grey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things come to a head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here! Finally! Sorry for the long break, but I hope it was worth the wait. 
> 
> There was some lovely art from [sateenvarjotta](http://sateenvarjottart.tumblr.com/post/135934322628/been-in-a-no-grey-kind-of-mood-for-a-while-now-and) and from [ feathers and flames](http://sailorbryant.tumblr.com/post/132758089744/feathers-and-flames-i-just-wanted-to-do-a) on tumblr. Please visit their tumblrs and tell them how amazing they are. 
> 
> Once again, huge shout out to ludomoose for listening to me whine and reading through these chapters for me.

his head.  It was one thing to say he could drop the prince off at Roosteria City without a second thought; it was another to have the result spelt out for him.

The idea of Gavin, sitting all alone in his cell, was slowly ripping him to shreds. The way his eyes would probably brighten if Ryan did visit him; the normally social man so happy to have anyone visit him, even if it was 

From the moment Gavin had asked him to visit him in Roosteria City, Ryan’s mind had been a turbulent mess. He had listened to the prince’s stories, and mechanically ate his broth, while images thrashed around in the man who put him there.

He could almost hear the way the prince’s voice would slowly turned resigned, trying to act normal every time he left the cell to travel to his lush rooms in the palace.  Ruling over his new lands, knowing that it was bought and paid for from the freedom of another man.

The broth tasted sour in his mouth.

Needing a break from the the prince’s subdued demeanor, and hoping to calm his own chaotic thoughts, he made a plan to head for the stables. When he stumbled outside, however, catching a view of Gavin’s naked back bathed in the other worldly orange glow of the sunset, everything went silent for a moment.  The mess returned slowly as he fled towards the stables, but he was almost glad to hear something besides the pounding of his own heart.  Gavin whispered, “his eyes,” over and over in his head, as memories of the man’s smile and bright eyes fluttered about.

As he freed Adam’s horse of it’s saddle, he tried to push the prince from his thoughts, but he seemed intent on staying. Memories of the first purse he stole, the first throat he slit were overlaid with Gavin’s smug smile when he caught him giving the teenage boy his leftover knives, or the way his eyes lit up when he handed him the Herobrine doll. He groomed Adam’s horse mechanically and led it to it’s stable, but his mind was a million miles away.

Even the worst of his memories - the guards shouting, his mother’s panicked cries, a high pitched deranged laugh, and _the fire_ \- seemed to fade into Gavin’s open and earnest eyes as they seemed to look straight through him.

(“Nobody is really all good, we’re just more one way or the other. You just seem, sort of, stuck in the middle.”)

He was just reaching down to unclasp the saddle from their stolen horse when a thought hit him so hard he was afraid for a moment that the horse had kicked him. His hands froze in place, taking a deep breath, before he finally had to acknowledge it.

He couldn’t do this.

Rage suddenly bubbled through him, and he turned to kick petulantly at the wall. Ryan was familiar with rage. He’d carried it around with him like a constant companion since he was young, but as he stared down at his throbbing foot, the rage, like his conviction to turn the prince in, seemed both equally inane.

Before he met the prince, memories of his childhood were tinted with nothing but anger, and guilt, but now he could remember the hopelessness he had felt. The pain that had overtaken him as his whole world had been ripped away from him.

The same pain he had inflicted on Gavin.

He just couldn’t do this.

He wanted to hate the prince. Hell, he had spent the whole trip trying to, but the prince had wormed his way into his heart so quickly that Ryan didn’t know if he could ever remove him.

For just a second, he let himself imagine a future where they lived out Gavin’s fantasy. The two of them, traveling the world. They could skip from village to village, Ryan taking odd jobs that required muscle, while Gavin honed his rusty pick pocketing skills. Spending their nights in taverns like Jack’s, but instead of a lithe brunette in his arms, it was the prince in disguise he would twirl around the dancefloor. They could catch a ship to the new continent and leave their pasts as nothing but a distant memory.

It could be easy.

But he could still see the fear in Gavin’s eyes on the occasions where his rage had burst forth- standing over him drenched in blood, holding him place against the rough bark - and Ryan knew that in truth, he didn’t deserve the prince. Gavin needed kindness, not a man with so much blood on his hands that sometimes it almost felt like a physical presence. He definitely didn’t need someone broken like Ryan, who had been perfectly fine with stealing the man from everyone he’d loved to drag him to rival king for nothing other than personal gain.

He shook his head. The prince had built up an idealized version of Ryan that he could never live up to, and as much as he could try, he didn’t want to destroy Gavin when he failed. He quickly turned his head noticing their stolen horse still waiting to be de-saddled.

He crossed to it, pulling open the pack he’d looped around the saddle when they’d fled from inn, his hand stilling as he came across the stuffed cow hidden beneath his half filled water flask, resting beside the red-eyed Herobrine doll. Slowly, he pulled the cow out, clutching it in his hand.

Gavin’s amused chuckle bounced around in his head, and Ryan pushed the palm of his empty hand into his eye in frustration, pretending that he didn’t feel any wetness there, before doing the same to his other eye.

He forced himself to think of the full pantry inside. Adam wouldn’t miss a few pieces of meat and bread, the man was obviously well off, and would probably send some their way if asked anyway. He wouldn’t need much anyway, Ryan thought, as he slid the cow into the loop of his belt, while he tried desperately not to look at the Herobrine doll. Just enough for two small packs.

Ryan slowly slid his bow off it’s holster, clutching it tightly in his hand, and doing his best to stop the tears that were threatening to well up again. The thought of losing his bow was heartbreaking, but he didn’t really have a choice. Gavin would need protection.

Gavin didn’t really want Ryan, he wanted freedom. Ryan could at least give him that.

\---

Ryan felt sick. From the second he’d heard Gavin tiptoeing down the stairs, he’d let the guilt and anguish finally consume him, and it was nearly overwhelming. He could remember the joy he had felt early on the journey at seeing the fear in his captive’s eyes, but now he would do anything if he could just rip the memory from his mind. He sat on the edge of the bed, his head cradled in his hands, as he desperately tried to remind himself that he’d made the right decision.

Even though Gavin would hate him now.

When he heard a loud commotion from the stables, he couldn’t stop a small chuckle from escaping, before the weight of his guilt settled back in place.

He wondered what Gavin would think when he found the Herobrine doll he’d left behind. Would he destroy it, trying to rid himself of any association of his cruel captor or keep it as token to always remind himself never to trust so easily? Would he recognize it as what it was, Ryan’s desperate attempt to be remembered by the prince even in small way?

Reaching down to grab his top, where he’d thrown it hastily to the ground earlier,  and slipping it over his head, he realized that he couldn’t sit here moping on a stranger’s bed forever.  It wouldn’t be long now before Gavin would be gone, and as soon as the prince left, Ryan needed to be gone as well. It wouldn’t take long before he found someone who would recognize him, and then Ryan would have a whole legion of guards on his tail. He needed to get to a ship and put Achievia and Roosteria behind him as quickly as possible if he had any chance of survival.

Still, he didn’t move. His eyes slowly slid back over the bed, remembering the shock - and desire - that had coursed through him at the sight of Gavin sprawled out across it.

He clenched his fist, knowing how he had faltered when he’d seen him, instantly regretting his plan.  After forgoing his plans of gold and redemption, here was the one thing he wanted most in the world, and it was being offered up to him freely, willingly. Lust had run through his veins, remembering the feel of those strong hips and soft lips and warm chest, and he just _wanted._

But it was the brutal force of his thoughts that reminded him exactly why he had his plan in the first place.  He didn’t just want Gavin, he wanted to consume him.  He’d seen what that sort of relentless, all consuming passion could do to the men in his family, and he did not want to bring that sort of pain into Gavin’s world.

He wasn’t sure how long he was still staring off into the distance, when he thought he heard a noise from the stairs. He listened closer, narrowing his eyes towards the bedroom door.  After a second of nothing else, he started to turn his head back to mope some more in silence, when the door creaked slowly open.

There was a moment of surprised, awkward silence as the prince and him took the sight of the other in. Ryan’s eyes slowly trailed over the prince’s widened eyes, to his hand that was clutching the small stuffed cow to his chest.

Ryan suddenly jerked to his feet, and it seemed to snap Gavin out of it, a tired look rolling over his face.

They continued to stare in silence before Gavin huffed out a sad breath, and whispered, “You’re such an asshole.”

He took a few determined steps forward, and Ryan sucked in a tense breath.

“I mean, how is your go-to plan to be the biggest tosser ever so you could run me off? It’s like you skipped from A to Zed without ever stopping to take a breath.”

“Gavin,” Ryan started breathlessly, but the prince kept talking, taking another few steps forward.

“I’m not gonna claim to be able to read all the little thoughts you’ve got tossing around in there, but I’m pretty sure I can pick up when somebody is looking at me like _that._ You wanna deny it, that’s fine, but I know I’m not wrong.”

The prince rambled on, and even though those green eyes were boring into his, Ryan wasn’t sure if he was talking more to himself or him.

“But now, I just don’t know if you’re just confused, or maybe you just get off on denying yourself.” Ryan made a strangled sound, but Gavin ignored him, giving him a thoughtful look. “Or maybe, you’re just scared.”

Ryan couldn’t stop the huff he let out.

“That must be a new feeling for you, I bet,” Gavin said calmly.

Ryan frowned.  “I’m not-”

“You want me, right?”

Swallowing suddenly at the serious look on the prince’s face, Ryan just blinked down at him, hopelessly, and Gavin’s eyes narrowed. He took another step forward, dropping the stuffed cow on the bed, as he slowly cornered Ryan against the nightstand.

“It’s not that easy, Gav - your highness.”

Gavin gave him an unimpressed look. “Is this going to be another round of ‘I’m not a good guy’?”

That roused Ryan out of his guilt filled stupor and he glared.

“Apparently, it is, because it seems I have to repeat things for you. I’ve done terrible, awful things, and I could easily do them to you as well.  I’m not this troubled rogue you’ve come to romanticise,” he seethed, but his anger ebbed into something more solemn when he added,  “I would taint you in every way possible.”

“It’s just all black and white with you, isn’t it?” Gavin asked nonchalantly, and Ryan took in a breath. “No murky little grey areas, like where the rest of us live.”

Ryan swallowed, too much emotion bubbling up in his throat. “You don’t understand.” He looked away, letting the tense silence ebb between them, as he tried to think of a way to make the prince understand that he was just no good for him.  

“Maybe I do,” Gavin whispered suddenly, injecting a level of sadness in his voice that had Ryan standing straighter. “Maybe I understand everything, Lord Haywood.”

It took him a second to realize what the prince had said.

He was still stumbling over how best to phrase the argument in his head when it finally clicked. It was like being dumped face first in a freezing lake. He was nauseous, and confused, but mostly, he was suddenly _furious_.

“You-You _knew_?” he seethed, instantly reaching for his sword out of habit, growling when he remembered he’d left it in the barn. “You knew this whole time-”

“No, no!” Gavin quickly said, holding his hands up in front of him as he took a few panic fueled steps backwards. “I just figured it out. From your bow.”

Ryan paused, his hand clenching and unclenching, as he stared down at the prince. Still, he could remember the way Gavin had immediately recognized the Roosteria crest on his sword, and the stories of memorizing the houses of Achievia, and resignation sunk into a pit in his stomach.

“The crest on your bow,” Gavin quickly continued. “It took me a minute, but I was just sitting in the stable, and I was _so_ angry with you trying to think of whether to leave or come in here and throw things at you and then it just hit me,” Gavin paused, twiddling his thumbs. “I’m not that great on crests outside of Achievia, but it would be hard to forget that one.  I remembered what you said about your father, and I just sort of put it together. I’m right though, aren’t I?” he asked, with something like dread lacing his words.

Ryan couldn’t speak.

Gavin was sneaking looks up at him, and it was just too much. His shoulder’s slumped and Gavin stood up straighter.

“I’m right,” Gavin whispered in awe, and Ryan swiftly avoided his eyes. “You’re his son. The boy who escaped. But that means,” Gavin paused, frowning, “you lied about your name.”

“Ryan’s my middle name,” Ryan whispered, the sentence crawling itself out of his throat. “I go by it now.”  

Gavin slowly nodded, understanding seeping into every inch of his face.

Everyone in the seven kingdoms, and some beyond, knew the story of his father, Lord James Haywood.  The lord from Estaria who opened the gates for his King’s traveling party, including his Queen and three sons, and a handful of his most trusted guards. The lord who welcomed them with a grand feast and a toast for the King’s tenure. The lord who then had his most loyal guards murder them all in their sleep.

Not many people who heard the story could forget of the man who waded through the blood of his former regent and declared himself King.  His self-declared reign only lasted a few weeks, until word spread of his actions and the King’s Brother arrived at their doorstep with his vast armies, but it was enough to cement Lord Haywood’s name in the history books.

Though most people knew him as the cruel moniker he was later given: Mad King Haywood.

The memories washed over Ryan so fast he swayed slightly on his feet. Cold, dead eyes staring up at from the ashen face of the crown prince, a boy two years his junior who he’d spent the afternoon playing with. His mother, screaming herself hoarse at the feet of his father, who sat, sprawled across a high backed chair with a bloody crown balanced crooked on his head and a wild smirk on his face.  

Pounding on the walls as the armies arrived. Their shouts, and demands, followed quickly by the fire that spread through the walls he’d spent his entire childhood surrounded by.

High, mad laughter that rang through the walls over the sounds of swords clashing and men screaming, before it was suddenly silenced. The blacksmith and his wife who dressed him in their son’s clothes and smuggled him out with the rest of the staff. The way his mother smelled when she whispered goodbye.  

Raw and open, in a way he’d not felt in nearly twenty years, his eyes finally focused enough to meet the prince’s concerned gaze.

“ _Do_ -” Ryan started, instantly clearing his throat from the raw emotion in his voice. “Do you get it now?”

“It doesn’t make you evil. Living through that,” Gavin whispered, taking a step forward.

“I’m his son,” he seethed.

“So?” Gavin quipped, and his flippant tone had Ryan grinding his teeth.

“I’ve killed innocent-”

“How many?” Gavin asked seriously.

“-What?” Ryan said slowly, caught off guard by the question.e

“How many innocent blokes? I bet you’ve murdered plenty of bandits and scumbags, intervened in petty squabbles between criminals, and kidnapped a few crooked lords, all the while convincing yourself with every crime that you’re just like him.” Gavin was unbearably close now, his eyes boring into Ryan so he couldn’t back away. “But tell me, please, how many innocent lives have you taken? That weren’t by accident. That you didn’t instantly regret.  How many?”

Ryan stayed silent, feeling something pounding at his chest and burning through his lungs and up his throat.

“Do you know how many people I pinched from?” Gavin continued, and Ryan blinked down at him. “How many innocent people I led astray, luring them into dark alleys and leaving them in the hands of the older boys. I never hurt anyone directly, but I certainly didn’t care what happened to them afterwards.”

Ryan took an aborted step forward, his hand lifting towards the prince before he quickly brought it back to his side.  Gavin spotted him and a ghost of a smile quirked on his lips.

“It took me years to come clean to Geoff, because I just knew he was going to throw me out when he knew about the _things_ I’d done, but-” Gavin trailed off, giving him a small smile. “But Geoff was always a big believer in second chances. He said that at the end of the day we’re not good or evil, we’re just a summary of choices that we’ve made.”

Ryan fought the urge to look away as Gavin’s words pierced into him.

“And the way I see it, you have three choices,” Gavin said, his eyes locked on Ryan’s, as his voice gained an edge. “First, you could knock me over the head, drag me on the back of a horse, and ride until you get Roosteria.”

Ryan gaped, but Gavin just shrugged.

“Burnie can give you your gold and your lands’ and all the things that you know you’re supposed to want,” he said, before crossing his arms and looking down at the ground. “Or you could just do nothing. You can continue on like before, pretending like you want nothing to do with me at all, and I will get on my horse and ride straight back home.” He finally met Ryan’s eyes again. “You can have all the things you think you want, like your solitude and your self righteousness.”

Regret spread through Ryan’s chest, and it must’ve shown on his face because Gavin graced him with a small smile.  He stepped forward, running his hand over the front of Ryan’s tunic, reaching for the loose strings that held the neck of his shirt closed, twirling them about.  

“Or you could go with your third option.”

“And what's that?” Ryan whispered, sounding dazed, watching Gavin’s fingers as they stilled, before gorgeous green eyes finally met his.

“You could kiss me,” he said, hesitantly.  

Ryan took a deep breath. It was sad really, how much he’d fought and pushed the other away. He’d went out of his way to hurt the other man, just to save them both the pain that would come if Ryan let his heart get carried away.

But the prince knew what he was getting into.  He had seen Ryan with a sword through another man’s gut, had seen him when he failed to stop his bursts of anger from boiling forth. He knew the one secret that he spent years running from, and he was still here, staring hopefully up into Ryan’s eyes.  

It was foolish and impetuous, and Ryan wondered about both of their sanity, but he just couldn’t bring himself to let the prince down again.

“And what does that get me?” he mumbled after a moment of silence, and the grin that he received made his heart throb wildly in his chest, and his apprehension melted away.

“Me.”

Breathing in sharply through his nose as his heart pounded away in his ears, Ryan leant down, grasping the sides of Gavin’s cheeks, and kissed him. Like crawling into bed after a long day, or a cold drink hitting a dry throat, Ryan felt like he was finally making the right decision.

He was hesitant at first, just enjoying the contact of their lips and the sudden euphoria that came from finally letting himself have what he wanted. Once Gavin realized what was happening, however, he deepened the kiss, pulling him closer and opening his mouth.  Ryan’s fingers clung desperately to his face, and tried not to make a sound when Gavin pulled away.

“Apologize,” Gavin whispered suddenly.

“Wha-”

“For what you said. Earlier.”

Guilt once again washed over Ryan like a tidal wave, but Gavin was staring unrelenting up at him, still pressed so close.  He took a deep breath, caressing the prince’s cheek with his thumb. “I’m sorry.”

“Say you’ll never do it again,” Gavin said, forcefully.

“I’ll never do that again,” he whispered. He stared, unflinching, back at the prince, before adding, “I’ll never hurt you again.”

Gavin closed his eyes, savoring the other man’s words. When he opened them again, there was a teasing glint, and a ghost of a smile.  “Say you want me.”

Ryan smirked, feeling high off their joint decision to throw caution to the wind. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

“Good,” Gavin said around a smirk, before he threaded his fingers through the lapels of Ryan’s tunic and pulled him down to kiss him again. There was far more heat behind this one, and he felt Gavin’s nails raking over his neck and arms.

Two palms suddenly laid flat against his chest and he was pushed backwards until the back of knees collided with the frame of the generously furred bed. He let out a small chuckle when he received another small push and relented until he was sitting on the bed. The prince quickly crawled onto his lap, pulling him into another passionate kiss.

Ryan sighed, running his fingers gently over Gavin’s sides and down to his hips, but when the prince whined against his lips, he felt his grip tighten. He could feel Gavin shudder against him as he ran his hands under his shirt feeling the skin on the prince’s back.  Gavin pulled away from the kiss, lifting his shirt and tossing it to the ground before he moved forward to help Ryan with his own.

Deft fingers trailed down his bare chest, and Ryan let out a contented sigh. He wrapped his arms around Gavin’s waist, holding him tight against him, before turning to the side and rolling them onto the bed.  Chuckling at Gavin’s surprised squawk, he swallowed around the lump that appeared as he remembered the last time they were lying like this.  Panic filled eyes flashed against the soft, hopeful ones he was currently staring down into and he smiled, cupping Gavin’s chin.

He had started this stupid quest for one main reason, to restore a little bit of respect to his name. Though, he supposed the first time he’d allowed himself to indulge the prince even for a moment he’d thrown that possibility out the window. But Gavin was right. Restoring honor to his name, a title and lands and a fiefdom to rule, those where all things he knew he was supposed to want.

A bright, red tint crept across Gavin’s cheeks as Ryan stared down at him, and Ryan just sighed in defeat.

He wanted to keep his word to Burnie, but he finally had to admit that there was someone far more worthy he could swear his fealty to.

“I’m gonna make you feel so good,” Ryan purred.

And he kept that promise.

This moment had been building for far too long for Ryan to take his time.  Regretting the lack of some sort of oil or lotion in arm’s reach, and immediately discarding the idea of taking the time to search, he settled for making the prince fall apart with his mouth.

A breath stealing kiss led to a flurry of nips and kisses down his naked chest, while his fingers quickly untied the fastenings of the prince’s trousers. Gavin gasped as he was suddenly freed, his fingers grasping through Ryan’s hair, as he trailed down to take Gavin fully in his mouth.

“Rye,” he gasped, whining when the man chuckled around him, sending shivers up his spine.

Fingers tugged at his hair, as he sucked and licked and swallowed, pulling every type of sound he could from the prince, stopping a few times to remind him of the man downstairs, before beginning his ministrations again. His name fell from Gavin’s lips in a dazed, whispered mantra, as he kept his hands steady on the prince’s hips to hold him still.

Gavin whispered his name one final time, in a deep, guttural groan, before he lifted his hips up off the bed and spilled down Ryan’s throat.

As he started crawling back up the prince’s body, intent on pulling him into another kiss, Ryan let out a gasp as a hand dipped into his trousers, wrapped tightly around him and began to stroke.

“Gavin,” he whispered down at the half lidded eyes that stared up at him.

“Yes, Rye?” Gavin mummered, smirking suddenly when he squeezed tightly with his hand, and pulled a whimper from the larger man.

“You don’t have to,” Ryan whispered, but he was bucking his hips into Gavin’s hand with every stroke.

The prince chuckled, freeing Ryan completely from his trousers, and taking a moment to admire the aching hardness that sprung forth and hung down above him. “I’m aware,” he teased, before he sped up his hand.

Ryan groaned, feeling himself slowly lean forward until their foreheads were pressed together, as he panted against the other’s lips. His arms trembled as he fought to hold himself up, and his thighs shook as he felt his orgasm building and building.

“Gav,” he groaned, shutting his eyes tightly.

“Do it,” the prince replied huskily, and Ryan opened his eyes with a groan and twisted to look down as he watched himself spill across Gavin’s bare chest.

Taking a moment to admire the sight, and to catch his breath, he finally pulled his head back and slammed his mouth into Gavin’s.  As exhaustion set in the kiss slowly lost it’s heat, as they leisurely explored the other’s mouths.  Pulling back, and ignoring the small sound of loss Gavin let out, Ryan slid off and collapsed onto the bed beside him. Quickly his arms slithered out to wrap around the prince and pull him close, ignoring his whines.

“I need to go clean up, Rye,” Gavin argued half heartedly.

“Nah,” Ryan simply replied.

Gavin rolled his eyes, but Ryan leant over to kiss him again. When he pulled back, Gavin broke out into a blinding smile.

Ryan soaked in the bright smile meant just for him, and the way those bright, green eyes were lit up and dancing, and for the first time he didn’t feel fear or guilt. He just felt content.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to come over to [tumblr](http://sailorbryant.tumblr.com) and shout at me. Hope you liked it!


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